Hot shoe-mounted red dot finder

[JamesF]

I think it was Dave Smith who mentioned that it is possible to get a fitting for an RDF to mount it on the hot shoe of a DSLR. I had a spare Skywatcher RDF, so I decided to make the mount fit. I took the base off:

And then cut down the front and sides to be the right size to fit in the hot shoe. I also trimmed off the stop on the back of the base, and finally cut two slots, one down each side, to allow the base to slde onto the shoe:

After fitting the rest of the RDF back on, here's what it looks like on the camera:

I'll do a more detailed write-up later.

James

[Black Knight]

That'll come in handy!

[JamesF]

I'm hoping so. Can't think why it's never occurred to me. It should be a huge amount easier than trying to work out if you're roughly in the right area by peering through the viewfinder or grabbing a thirty second sub and trying to work out if you recognise any of the stars.

James

[m.tweedy]

i bought one of these

http://www.amazon.co...=pd_sim_sbs_p_4

drilled a hole in the bottom of my rigel base. Glued them together and voila one camera mounted RDF

[m.tweedy]

The reason I chose the Rigel is that it is light and upright so I don't bump into it when looking through the viewfinder

[JamesF]

Hopefully once I've tested this I won't need to look through the viewfinder

James

[Steve Ward]

That's a really neat idea James , guess what I shall be doing tomorrow instead of sulking under a leaden sky . . .

Steve.

[sologuitarist61]

Well done James, very good!

[allcart]

Good job James. I went a slightly different route to achieve the same goal. I attached a small 9x30 finder from my old Tasco 114mm onto the hotshoe attachment from an old off camera flash cord. I had to shape the base of the finder mount to make it fit nicely, but it did work fine. I have designed a better method of targeting the camera with a 10x50 finderscope now.

This is what my camscope looked like.

[Astroblagger]

nice idea James, do you think it would take the weight of a metal 9x50 finder with qhy5 attached? been looking to find a way to guide with just the finder guider and dslr on the mount?

[JamesF]

That's a really neat idea James , guess what I shall be doing tomorrow instead of sulking under a leaden sky . . .

Standing at a workbench under a leaden sky?

James

[JamesF]

nice idea James, do you think it would take the weight of a metal 9x50 finder with qhy5 attached? been looking to find a way to guide with just the finder guider and dslr on the mount?

That seems like quite a lot of weight to put on the hot shoe. I have a short dovetail with a ball head mount that I attach the camera to. I'd be tempted to make up a bracket to attach the finder-guider between the foot that screws onto the camera and goes into the ball head mount and the camera body itself, I think.

James

[allcart]

I agree James. The last thing I'd want to do is strain my hotshoe, but then again, a 580EX flashgun is no lightweight. It could work, but I did it this way.

The platform is made from a 1cm thick nylon chopping board. This is bolted to a mediun length dovetail at both ends. The camera mount is then bolted on top of the platform. I had to bore a recess in the bottom of the dovetail to allow the camera mount bolt head to be flush.

I then bolted the SW 9x50 beside the camera. Simples.

This is going to take my qhy5 or maybe the Synguider for portability.

[Astroblagger]

^{do you not have any problems with ballance with that set up, looks like there might be a bit much weight on the finder side??}

[allcart]

Well observed. Yes there is a slight imbalance in favour of the finder side, but I hope its not going to be too much of a problem or I will have to counterbalance it on the other side. I haven't fully tested it at all angles but it seemed to do the job on the first run. Tracking stayed stable with no glichy bits at all. If I had not screwed up the focus I think I would have had some very nice subs.. I will try it again as soon as the sky clears up.

I chose to use this idea as I couldn't find a simple way to fit the SW 10x50 finder on the hotshoe as I did with the smaller finder.

[gcluer]

Here is how I did it: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/croydonastro/8hegjNTCeQQ

[MattGoo]

Adapters are now available to buy from here http://www.365astronomy.com/Blitz-Hotshoe-dSLR-Camera-Adapter-for-Red-Dot-Finder.html £16.20

They take a standard Skywatcher RDF on top.

[Alien 13]

It is a very handy having a RDF on the camera hotshoe even for daytime shots I used the same adapter as Michael as the basis for mine.

Alan

[jgs001]

Nice job James, I bought an adapter from astroboot some time back, and mounted an RFD on top. I have to admit to never having used it. Even with my sigma macro lens (150mm) the FOV is so large, that getting my target into approx the middle of the FOV is more limited by my older ballhead without a proper tension adjustment.