Meade Instruments Corporation

Panel Concepts, Inc.

John E Smith

David M Hines

John C Diebel

Clair A Samhammer

Kenneth W Baun

Brian G Tingey

Stanley H Dewan

Michael A Wachala

Brent G Duchon

John E Hoot

David G Blackburn

Andy J Scherer

Steven P Kettenburg

A telescope system facilitates easy upgrading from friction lock mounting to manual worm drive, and from manual worm drive to motor drive. Vibration isolation provides a steady field of view for enhanced observation and photography. A telescope mount facilitates enhanced below the horizon and zenith viewing. A tripod has detents which hold the legs thereof in a deployed position during handling of the tripod. A cam lock reliably maintains a desired length of telescoping tripod legs. An X-Y adjustable finder scope facilitates easy alignment thereof with the telescope

Upgradeable telescope system

A fully automated telescope system is able to be fully operable in both Alt-Az and polar configurations. In either configuration, the telescope aligns itself to be celestial coordinate system following a simplified initialization procedure during which the telescope tube is first pointed north and then pointed towards a user's horizon. A command processor, under application software program control orients the telescope system with respect to the celestial coordinate system given the initial directional inputs. The initial telescope orientation may be further refined by initially inputting a geographical location indicia, or by shooting one or two additional celestial objects. Once the telescope's orientation with respect to the celestial coordinate system is established, the telescope system will automatically move to and track any desired celestial object without further alignment invention by a user.

Fully automated telescope system with distributed intelligence

Automated telescope

Spotting scope

Telescope mount

A connector system for demountable wall modules, including a pair of adjoining vertical channel members having mating structure. The channel members are cut from the same extrusion, and one member is inverted with respect to the other. The mating structure which that provides includes an outwardly extending flange having a mating protrusion, a central wall, and a U-shaped rail having a mating cavity. The mating protrusion on one channel member is positioned to fit within the mating cavity of the other channel member, and vice versa. The central walls are slightly offset from a central plane of the panels to lie in an overlapped relationship. One or more locking keys are inserted through slots in the extending flanges to bias the flange away from the central wall of the opposed channel member. In this manner, the mating protrusions are held within the mating cavities to securely fasten the two panels together. The panels may be aligned to form a straight wall or may be disposed at various angles with the use of a separate connector member having mating structures similar to those on the channel members. The slots in the extending flanges are visible through gaps between the panels for inserting the locking keys. Shelving brackets or other such structure may also be mounted in channel slots or may replace the locking keys in the slots to join the panels.

Wall partition connector

Growing community of inventors

Mission Viejo, CA, United States of America

John E Smith