Levels of precision

[Tin Falcon]

if that is the case why not mount a good bulls eye level to the base .
McMaster carr bulls eye level
then add leveling feet.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-leveling-mounts/=mxl2xb

tin

 

[dnalot]

if that is the case why not mount a good bulls eye level to the base .
McMaster carr bulls eye level
then add leveling feet.

That is what i have now. My mobile pylon is a 2" slab of concrete with adjustable feet and a bulls eye in the center. It gets me close but i still spend a considerable time taking readings from several stars to calibrate out the error. What works better if there is no wind is a Q-ball on a piece of plate glass. If you are right on the software can aim at and track a star. If you are not very precisely calibrated you have to hunt a little for your target. That's fine for stars, but i want to make a scope that's able to track satellites and they move fast so you don't have much time to be searching.

 

[Tin Falcon]

What is the Minutes of angle rating on your current bulls eye.

the
2308A27 reads in 1 moa.
tin

 

[///]

I use a bullseye for my Astrotrac portable pier and also for the portable pier I made for my EQ6pro.
Gets me close enough to level, then a quick polar align followed by a quick drift align, chuck the Newt Astrograph on and image for hours.
Never needed anything too precise. Maybe I just got lucky with this cheap bullseye :shrug:

 

[dnalot]

It is about 4" in diameter and is labeled + or - 3 degrees. I bought it from a surplus supply for a few bucks. It works good for star gazing as I have plenty of time to setup and plenty of time to acquire the target. My software is not sophisticated, mostly freeware and homeware. I got bored with stars and now I track satellites. Fixed ones are easy those that are moving are very difficult. my budget is very limited so I try to improvise as much as possible.

 

[dnalot]

Forgot to press the send button and the photo didn't upload

Mark T

 

[///]

Have you had a go at the ISS yet? Quite a few people are getting good photo's of it these days and most are tracking by hand.

 

[dnalot]

Have you had a go at the ISS yet? Quite a few people are getting good photo's of it these days and most are tracking by hand.

That is a fast one, but its big and easy to find. With the small ones its not that there is something to "see" so much as the game of can you find it and can you track it.

My main interest in scopes is not so much using them as it is building them. My Dobson is the only reflector scope I have made and the only computer driven one. Mostly I build refractor telescopes from 4" to 6" for terrestrial viewing. You can build very good scopes for very little money. Soon the theaters across america will be scraping their old projectors (they are going digital) and there will be a flood of very good surplus lenses.

Mark T

 

[Tin Falcon]

back to the regularly scheduled program. the master precision levels mention are intended for leveling and setting up precision machine tools such as lathes. Although I do realize levels do have many applications.
Tin

 

[Davo J]

I posted this up on another forum a few years back, and thought it might help be of interest in this thread.

I have a few digital levels and angle gauges and over time have wondered how they compare to normal and precision machinist levels.
The standard type Stabila builders levels work out to have an accuracy of 0.75mm /per meter or 0.043 degrees

A machinist level like a Starrett No 98 is 0.005 in/foot or 0.42mm/meter per division which works out to be around 0.0239 degrees.
The level divisions can be split by eye into 5 pretty easy which then works out to be around 0.00478 degrees or better.

The more sensitive levels like the Starrett No 199 or the cheaper alternatives from China are 0.0005 in/foot or 0.04mm/meter per division and they work out to be around 0.00240 degrees.
As above the divisions can be split into 5 pretty easy by eye which then works out to be around 0.00048 degrees or better.

So a digital level/angle gauge that has an accuracy of 0.1 degrees is over twice what a standard builders level is, and in my opinion is not really suited to machine work. It would need to have an accuracy (not resolution) of at least 0.01 degrees to be any good to use to set up a lathe etc. Even then it is a the high end of the scale because you can not spit 0.1 - 0.2 degrees etc, where a vial level can be split by eye between graduations.

Dave