RCOS "Professional Series" Equatorial Fork Mounts

Specifically designed for the RC Optical Systems 20RC and 24RC.

Product Review / Reference Information Author Date File
24RC and Professional Series Equatorial Fork Mount Mike Rice January 2007 PDF - 397KB

RCOS Professional Series Equatorial Fork Mount

RCOS Professional Series Equatorial Fork Mount

Fork Specifications:

  • CAD designed, engineered and modeled.
  • 100% CNC machined.
  • Fabricated (and then welded) 6061 aluminum.
  • 34 inch span between fork arms.
  • 32.5 inch "swing through" clearance from center of rotation.
  • Bearing axis is line bored after final assembly.
  • Byer's 15 inch Research Grade Dec gear.

Polar Axis Specifications:

  • CAD designed, engineered and modeled.
  • 100% CNC Machined.
  • Payload Capacity - 1000+ pounds.
  • Major Axis Bearing - 16 inch O.D.
  • Fabricated 7075 aluminum.
  • Stainless Steel polar shaft.
  • Bearing axis is line bored after final assembly.
  • Precision polar alignment adjustments in Altitude and Azimuth.
  • Byer's 20 inch Research Grade RA gear.
Major Bearing diameter is 16" O.D. and the Minor Bearing is 10" O.D.
  • The polar axle is a 9" O.D. cast 303 Stainless Steel tube with an 18" diameter 7075 aluminum hub pressed into place. The entire assembly is then machined (in a lathe) as one piece.
  • The finished Polar Axle alone weights 175 pounds.

Software Bisque Servo Driven Professional Version TCS MKS-4000 Control System:

  • Brushless DC-servo motors ensure long life and smooth operation.
  • Field upgradeable flash RAM permits easy software updates.
  • Fast slew speeds and consistent torque at all slew rates. A maximum rate of three degrees per second in right ascension and three degrees per second in declination gets you to the object, fast.
  • Virtually unlimited selection of tracking and slew rate control.
  • AutoHome™ capability (to better than one arc second) with built-in sensor circuitry on each axis ensure that the mount always knows its orientation (after a one-time initialization), even after power failure.
  • Software controlled "hard limits" prevent the mount from tracking or slewing into itself.
  • User-defined parameters can be stored to onboard flash RAM.
  • Numerous safety features critical to remote operation including current-limit protection, encoder-error limits, acceleration ramping, and user-definable maximum slew speeds.
  • Joystick or PC software control.
  • Programmable and updateable Periodic Error Correction.
  • Control system can track at true lunar, solar, minor planet or comet, NEO or LEO satellite rates, or at almost any user-defined rate (when used with TheSky). No other commercially available control system can make this claim.
  • TheSky has been updated to provide many new capabilities that were previously not possible. Some examples of these new features include: display a graph of the periodic error of the worm gear; track a low-earth satellite by clicking on the object on the Sky Display.