Two 20mm thick plates were used for the sides. I used the Strippit again to punch a template and using this I drilled and tapped some holes so I could bolt the two plates and template together. My very old woodwork bandsaw got a good workout cutting through the 40mm thick aluminium. The new 1/4x8 blade made shork work of the task as long as I was patient.

the rotary table was invaluable for machining the curved slot for the latitude lock screws.

I considered various ways to adjust the tilt of the RA axis including worm and wormwheel, levers and cams and plain old screws. I prefered a simple screw adjuster but I needed a range of 70mm and I didn't have the room.

In the end I came up with the design shown here, even at it's maximim height I still had 10mm of each thread engaged. The top screw is plain M12x1.75 while the lower screw is 20x1.75, left hand. I've never cut a left hand screw before and in the end prooved easier than the normal right hand as you didn't have to watch the end of cut. The latitude jack works well and will easily lift the mount and scope.

In the southern hemisphere we have no Polaris star to aid alignment, just a pattern of faint stars in Octans, hardly an easy pointer to hang yer hat on.

The best method to align the mount with the south celestial pole is the star drift method and experts in our club can do it in 20 minutes. A method to slew the mount, along with the latitude jack, is required.

Shown here are the components theat make up the polar slew.

I made a case to keep all paraphernalia together and to make transportation to and from the car easy. Even my daughter Emma finds it easy to wheel my mount around.

Contained within the case is the GEM, counterweight shaft, weights, motor controller, compass, spirit level and battery charger. All up it weighs 24 kilograms.