Peter Drew

Not sure what my telescope philosophy is. I am fortunate, by various means, to have a considerable number of telescopes to use. Few are "high end" and my largest of their type, solar 6", refractor 8.5", binocular 12" and reflector 30" I made myself. Overall, I get the most satisfaction from using equipment that is self built, high end commercial equipment that is large enough for my needs is just too expensive to justify. 🙂

Yes, I did just this. I got fed up with the eventual unreliability of the electronics on the LX200 mount. I removed the screws holding the side plates to the OTA, I also loosened the screws holding one of the fork arms so that there was more clearance for sliding the OTA out without marring the paintwork. There are screws round each end of the main tube which can be utilised for attaching a rail to suit the mount. Despite the deforking the OTA is still a pretty heavy unit! The EQ6 handled it ok. 🙂

For relatively low power viewing of DSO's the chromatic aberration of achromats is hardly an issue. If high powers are required then the advantages of ED and SD optics are worth paying for. For large apertures, higher magnifications, weight and cost, reflecting binoscopes are hard to beat. 🙂

Yes, that was one of mine. It's as least as big as it looks, 8" F25 optics folded and focal reduced to about F12. A two man lift! 🙂

Something like this?

@EnceladusDan. I think the easiest mitigation of the problem will be to do as you mentioned, tune the 90 degree potion of the Dec gear that is in most use. 🙂

I should have made it clear that I didn't make the optics! The objective was made by someone in Taiwan I think, he offered 150mm, 220mm and 250mm versions. I bout mine pre-owned but unused for £500! 🙂

Made it myself, couldn't afford to buy one! Made the mount and observatory for the same reason, total cost under 3K 🙂

I have several. 60mm F11 80mm F16 100mm F10 102mm F10 102mm F9 Fluorite 127mm F15 triplet 150mm F9 ED 150mm F10 Ha solar 220mm F12.5 🙂

A bit like a fixed tripod Vlaiv. 🙂

I would fit angled struts of T section steel from just below the top of the pier down to the concrete base. This would remove the deflection and vibration issues. This would suppose a concrete base with suitable constructional integrity. 🙂

I bet Timmy was impressed if he saw it! 🙂

Photo of Robs largest mount as mentioned earlier in this thread

They are all Rob Miller mounts. 🙂

Yes, they are used as a means to achieve wide apparent views with large lens elements despite being relatively short focal lengths. Simply put, they are long focal length eyepieces incorporating a Barlow element to produce the shorter focal length. 🙂

Zooms and many wide field eyepieces are already Barlowed. 🙂

I'm always up for chips! 🙂 This mount is also one of Rob's. These mounts were experimental and custom made rather than production and as mentioned were the forerunners of some of the legendary Astrophysics mounts. I've added some photos of the giant mount that Rob made, it had been stored in a shed prior to being donated and I am gradually refurbishing it back to its former glory. The eyepiece position is over 7 feet high when vertical. I also show one of the smaller ones I made for my 12.5" Cassegrain, you can see the similarity, most of mine were made for fork mounts. The blue Cassegrain is underneath.

There should be three equally spaced grub screws somewhere on the component that carries the RA wormwheel, these bear on to nylon pads and can be tightened to remove unwanted slippage. The very large Rob Miller mount that I have was a one-off custom mount. 🙂

I have seen plenty like it! 🙂. It is a design that Rob and myself developed for mounting large telescopes. It is actually a rather late Rob Miller mount as he was working on them prior to emigrating to the USA and joining Astrophysics, several of the elements were incorporated in the early Astrophysics mounts. I made several similar ones for large fork mounted Newtonians and Cassegrains. I still have one that carries a 12.5" F13.5 Cassegrain. I was recently donated the largest version that Rob ever made, it has a 4" stainless steel polar shaft!. It carries a 10.25" F7 Newtonian with an optical window on a massive fork mount. I have refurbished it but not had chance to try it out. I'll post some photos as soon as I can.

The usual. 🌧️ 😠

I'm sure it's possible but this rare sight will be even more rare in Rochester. 🙂

Can you remove the nylon pads, refit the corrector plate and then re-insert the pads? 🤔

If the OP does indeed want to connect the camera directly rather than the afocal method, perhaps a dummy eyepiece or one without lenses would suit this purpose and still benefit from a x-y cell phone platform. We have had great outreach results with Celestron Nexyz mounts. 🙂

If no finder is available, searching for the Sun is made easier by removing the eyepiece. You can then readily see the approaching glow whilst observing from a safe distance. Once the image is found, pop the eyepiece back in. 🙂