Losmandy Telescope Mount Knob Covers/Levers

These are two different designs that are meant to go over the standard knobs used on Losmandy telescope mounts (i.e. G11, G8, etc.) in order to help with comfort and leverage, particularly during loosening. Especially during the winter months, the standard metal knobs are very sharp and cold on the fingers, and often very difficult to loosen. Particularly the saddle and azimuth knobs can be very hard to undo, often requiring a pair of pliers on very cold nights. One design is simply a ‘cover’ that makes the whole knob larger, and the other actually extends 0.5" further on one side to give a bit more leverage. They seem to be a great improvement in usability and ergonomics.

The design came from measuring and tracing out a picture of the knob, head-on, to match the curved surfaces in Fusion 360, then extruding an enlarged profile, etc.

So they are ‘friction fit’, but certainly could be scaled up slightly if you only wanted to use them as a ‘wrench’. So far the ‘lever’ style works great on the saddle and azimuth locations:

And the ‘cover’ style works great on the other locations: