One aspect of the design I put some design effort into improving was the azimuth rotation pivot. I realized that if this heavy scope was to be used on an equatorial platform that a great deal of sideways load would be placed on the pivot. This called for a heavier assembly than some designs I had seen.

My solution was a 3/4" stainless steel threaded rod, machined to a 1/2" shaft along half of its length. A bearing would be mounted into an aluminum pillow block set into the bottom of the rocker box.

Above is the pivot in place, looking into the bottom of the rocker. All that remains to do is insert an E-clip to retain the ground board.

The end of the pivot is prepared to receive the azimuth encoder by drilling a hole in the end of the shaft to receive the encoder shaft.