1. Building your own binomount (or how to see the Universe for less than 10 Alterian dollars a day)

2. Who is this bloke anyway? Rob Live in Greenwich Lifelong interest in space and astronomy Management Consultant I am not an engineer –I finished woodwork in my 2 nd year at school –I am genetically clumsy! –I own no special tools

3. Why did I do this? Needed something to do over Easter Either this or visit aged relatives! Wanted to use binoculars for some time Hand holding binoculars was a pain and simply didn’t work for me. Can’t afford stabiliser binoculars

4. What tools do I need? Drill –Power preferred but not essential Wood saw Hacksaw (Junior OK but slower) Drill bits (6mm, 10mm) Sandpaper (is this a tool?) File Bench and vice are a lovely extra

5. What materials do I need? Three pieces of 1m long aluminium box section (available B&Q) or Three pieces of appropriately sized wood 2 x 0.7m, 1 x 0.6m –Wood is not as stiff as aluminium so might need bigger Scraps of 6mm (ish) plywood –I used scrap wood 6mm metal nuts, bolts and wingnuts (available Wickes/B&Q) Something to act as a counterweight –I used lead flashing though you could use stones in a can! Nothing clever is needed, suggestion is something approx twice the weight of the binocular mount. Various small wood screws (available anywhere) ¼-20 threaded bolt (specialist item), though may not be needed. Depends on binocular Total cost –If metal around £25 –If wood around £10 (though could be £0)

6. What else do you need? A support, usually a tripod. –Doesn’t need to be that bulky as it is not carrying a lot of weight –Needs to be stiff as there’s a lot of side load –Best option is with a removable centre column Binoculars –10 x 50 are easy –8 x anything would allow a very small mount –10 x 70’s are probably the limit

7. How to do it 1… The 1 st element of the binocular mount is the parallelogram. Simple to construct –Four sections –Can rotate Does not need high level of precision

8. How to do it 2 … Second element is the counterweight The counterweight needs to balance the binoculars plus any other metal/woodwork. Simple maths –If counterweight arm is same length as bino arm then counterweight is more or less the same weight as the binoculars –If counterweight arm is half the length as bino arm then counterweight is more or less twice the weight as the binoculars –And so on…

9. How to do it 3… We need to mount the binoculars Most (though not all) binoculars have a ¼-20 threaded hole in the middle. –Not easy to find a bolt to fit as we have gone metric, photo shops may have it, available on-line at Stig Stainless Steel Fasteners –If you have it then simply make an L bar and fit the ¼- 20 bolt through that If no threaded hole then… –Trickier but doable

10. How to do it 4… Mounting the mount on a tripod Could be the trickiest and most difficult. Best and easiest solution is a centre rod that comes out of tripod. Otherwise you have to make a head or attach it to a camera head

11. A schematic (some dimensions deliberately not shown)

12. Commercial and other mounts

13. Other mounts