Alternative to Vibration Suppression pads?

I made a set like that once, used red silicon caulk.. waste of time and
money since it was nowhere as effective as a set of celestron pads.

On 14 Jul 2003 10:21:23 -0700, (Chris Nicholl)
wrote:

I made some myself, using a method I saw posted on Astromart. If you
get some of the large furniture-leg pads, then fill them with caulk
and let it cure, you'll get a set that works very well. I haven't
compared them to the commercial sets, but my pads dampen the vibration
on my AT1010 by about 50%.

Chris Nicholl

Herm
Astropics http://home.att.net/~hermperez

Starpads work good for the money.

http://chartmarker.tripod.com/starpads.htm

Robert Berta wrote:

The mistake people make is to assume the pads are simply rubber pads.
They consist of an inner and outer layer of hard plastic and that
sandwhiches an inner layer of sorbothan. The Meade, Celestron and
Orion versions are all the same principle. Adorama in NY usually has
very good prices on them. The problem with just buying a piece of
sorbothane is that it "spreads" out and if you simply put it under the
legs it would squish and probably tear quickly. Frankly...they are
cheap and probably one of the biggest improvements you can make for
your telescope to reduce vibration. I use them on all my telescopes
and mounts..from my camera tripod mounted binocs...to my 11"Nexstar
GPS on a Meade GFT and 6" APO on a custom tripod with German mount. I
usually see at least a 50% reduction in vibration. It is also
extremely effective at minimizing wind harmonics.

To be most effective you should remove any existing rubber crutch tips
so the metal legs rest directly on the pads.

I have also tried using a 1/4" sheet of rubber...that worked
somewhat...about 20% reduction...but not much more than rubber crutch
tips.

Bob Berta

(Otto Parets) wrote in message . com...
Does anyone have an idea for an alternative to those expensive
vibration suppression pads? I thought of some dense rubber, but I
looked for a thick sheet of rubber at the hardware store and came up
empty handed.

Thanks to all who can help.

Clear skies,
Otto Parets

Zan Hecht wrote:
Go to http://www.mcmaster.com/ and search for Sorbothane. You can get a
4"x4"x.5" sheet of it for around $8. I'm not sure what hardness Celestron
and the like use in their pads, but McMaster offers 40, 50, and 70 OO.

If anybody tries this route, I'd like to hear their report ...

The other thing that I found works for me is to connect the legs of the
tripod
about halfway down the legs tightly, so that they can't really move or
jiggle
independently. This helps with vibrations even with a lot of people walking
or running around your scope, such as at a public star party.

--- Dave
--
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Never be afraid of trying something new for the love of it.
Remember... amateurs built the Ark.
Professionals built the Titanic!


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"Otto Parets" wrote in message
om...
Does anyone have an idea for an alternative to those expensive
vibration suppression pads? I thought of some dense rubber, but I
looked for a thick sheet of rubber at the hardware store and came up
empty handed.

Thanks to all who can help.

Clear skies,
Otto Parets