Binocular Parallelogram mount for Astronomy

[Damian Axford]

Hi all...

quick project on the go for my dad (an avid astronomer), who has just got some rather nice Helios Apollo 15x70 binos and we've been discussing the idea of making a parallelogram mount stand to make using them a little more comfortable.  So...  I'm quite the fan of aluminium extrusions and printed brackets, so have have been putting together a design in OpenSCAD ready for prototyping.  Here's the latest WIP shot:

...and attached is the PDF drawing I did to plan out the basic dimensions/design.

This is designed to mate to a Manfrotto 055x tripod, or surveying tripods with an adapter plate.

Thoughts/comments welcome - and will post a bit more detail as I finish the design..... currently printing off a few of the parts to test fit them on some alu.  Will also be doing some stress tests to ensure they can handle the loads involved.

Cheers

D