March 14, 2025
Description
This is a 3D printed fixed equatorial wedge for the ZWO SeeStar S50 telescope. It is supposed to be mounted between the ZWO provided tripod and the telescope itself and lets you use it in equatorial mode, without the field rotation problem that Alt/Az mounted telescopes like the S50 have.
The design requires one 3/8"-16x1" screw and one 3/8"-16 nut - for metric people, although the threads look like M10, they are not, do not even try. If you already have the right nut and bolt you only need to download the wedge file that corresponds to the latitude from where you plan to use the telescope and the screw handle file. I created 90 wedge files for different latitudes in steps of one degree, for latitudes from 0 to 89 degrees - at the North and South poles you do not need an equatorial wedge.
When you slice the model, at height 48.4mm (before layer 242, assuming 0.2mm layers) you need to add a print pause to insert the nut, then you can continue the print. When the print ends, insert the bolt into the screw handle, the rest should be pretty obvious.
No supports are needed for printing any of the models, just print them in the orientation in the provided files. Model strength is important, I suggest 0.2mm layers, 10 bottom and top layers, at least 5 wall perimeters and 25% infill. I tested with PETG but PLA should also work.
In North America, you can find the nut and bolt at places like Home Depot. For those living in a metric universe, without ready access to imperial hardware, I also included a 3D printed nut and bolt. I do not recommend using these, if you do so, you do it at your own risk, if the plastic bolt breaks you cannot blame me. Order metal parts, they are very cheap on AliExpress, search for 3/8"-16x1" bolts and 3/8"-16 nuts.
Both STL and 3MF format files are provided.
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution