Widefield Rig Mk II

[Digz]

Well with all these bank holidays around, not to mention the strong winds as well! I have finally got round to making Mk II of my widefield rig which I plan to use during the summer months.

Mk I can be found here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/114527-my-first-home-made-piece-kit.html

Last week I ordered a spare finderscope mounting plate from FLO (cheers guys) so I can use my finder-guider with my widefield rig for guided images.

So here is what Mk II looks like:

Hopefully I can try it out soon weather permitting.

[Keiran]

Well i dont see there being any flex in that rig

Thats a great cheap and easy idea, love it... it is really cool.

[theodore]

Hi, great rig. What's the finder scope for?

Theo

[Digz]

Cheers guys .

Theo, the finderscope is what i attach my Titan to so I can guide.

[theodore]

Do you need to guide a wide field pic? Would have thought the Titan would not need that. Unless you are doing very very long exposures?

Theo

[Digz]

Hey Theo,

The plan is to mount my camera and a lens and then take exposures of upto 10mins thus they will be guided with the Titan connected to my finderscope.

Hope that makes sense?

[Psychobilly]

Necessity is the mother of invention...

With mine I have some spacers that can be put under the B&S head to allow the camera to rotate through 90 degrees without fouling on the plate...

Remember once your PA'd and tracking you can point the camera anywhere you like which is a great way of imaging around the meridian without the hassle of a meridian flip...

I modified an RDF to fit into the Hotshoe of the camera...

Peter...

[Digz]

Necessity is the mother of invention...

With mine I have some spacers that can be put under the B&S head to allow the camera to rotate through 90 degrees without fouling on the plate...

Remember once your PA'd and tracking you can point the camera anywhere you like which is a great way of imaging around the meridian without the hassle of a meridian flip...

I modified an RDF to fit into the Hotshoe of the camera...

Peter...

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the comments. Just one thing - Im not too sure what you mean with the spacers? For example, on my rig, would they be sat on top of the timber and below the B&S head?

Ive got just enough clearance to rotate the B&S Head through a full 360, although I may end up countersinking the bolt head to tidy the rig up

[iwatkins]

Love it Digz.

My kind of DIY. Take bits you have and bolt them together with other bits you have. I like it.

Let us see some results when you can.

I'm looking to do similar to bolt my Canon 7D to my HEQ6 on those nights I want to wide field image rather than put the scope on.

Cheers

Ian

[Psychobilly]

When the camera is aligned long edge to ra is there enough clearance for shuttter release and data cables... i needed to add a spacer between the bottom of the b&s head and the "bar"

Billy on the San Fran

.....

[Digz]

I think there should be enough clearance, there certainly seemed to be when I used Mk I in this fashion.

One thing I havent tried is to try mounting some of my longer lenses. Having said that my longer lenses have collars which push the camera off the base slightly. Ill have to see how it goes.

Cheers

[davew]

Love it Digz,

I can see how you balance side to side but how are you going to balance front to back ?

Dave.

[Digz]

Hi Dave,

I'm not quite sure what you mean but balancing would the same if there was a scope attached. I would use the counterweights for RA and then slide the dovetail back and forth in the puck for DEC (I think I've got that round the right way)

HTH

[davew]

Hi Digz,

Badly phrased question I suppose.

What I mean is, you can balance the head side to side on the dovetail but not front to back.

It will probably work with the very widefield lenses but if you attach say the 400mm all the weight would hang forwards. You can't slide it back. Are you going to fit another plate or just not use the big lenses ?

Don't suppose that's any clearer ??

Dave.

[Digz]

Hi Dave,

I think I get it now. I don't know whether it will be an issue but, to be honest, I've yet to see with a long lens.

With my longer lenses I shall be mounting using their tripod collars which should evenly distribute the weight 'front-to-back' so to speak. That is the camera itself will be sat behind the ball head and the weight will be better distributed.

I think as long as the rig is balanced in Dec and RA then it should be ok.....

[davew]

Mounting with the tripod collar, if it's up to the job, is the best way round it I think.

The reason I mentioned it was that I've done a similar trick myself. I needed to pull the camera back a bit with a longer lens.

I'm looking forward to your results.

Dave.