Telescope Mount Setup Leveling block

thingiverse

This little block is designed for helping get a telescope mount set up. When I take my Atlas HDX110 out and set it up, I always end up fussing a bit with making sure the mount is perfectly vertical in the parked position so when I start up it's right. There are ways to do that without this little thing, but I've found this makes is very quick and easy. You can snap this platform onto a 1.25 in counter weight bar and sit a level on it so that it's correctly oriented to get a good read on when the bar is actually vertical. This block was designed for my location at 29 degrees 30 min North. If you're a different latitude it won't be exact but it should be better than eyeballing it. Print settings aren't critical, it's not a structural piece. Updated version. While it worked, the orientation of the original version had a huge impact on the level reading; a slight twist out of perfectly aligned from front to back made a difference. This one has a platform on the side. What you do is attach the block, rotate the mount 90 degrees to the side so the counterweight bar is horizontal (level). Put a level on the side of this block and make sure the side platform is level to the ground. Now when you rotate the bar down, the top platform will be correctly oriented to give a good reading. I'll try to get around to adding some photos of what I'm doing with it.