Alas I was weak - An bought another scope

[Psychobilly]

An ex demo Vixen ED81S popped up for silly money and I have put more marks onthe dovetail today that there were on it when it arrived...

So instead of waiting for a WO GT81 and its reducer I went for this instead...

Hoping the clouds will clear and I can point it at something later...

Pity they didn't have an ex demo reducer and adaptor to go with it but they should be here before the end of next week...

Peter...

[Dai150PL]

Like the look of your new toy, looking forward to see what you get up to with it. If you are looking for clear skies pop over this side of the mountain. Skies will be clear for days as have just taken my telescope apart for a well needed clean and upgrade.

David

[anthony]

"Alas I was weak" - in matters like this, consider weakness a strength.

[Psychobilly]

Didn't like is S/S so decided to piggy back it instead... Find it a lot easier to mount, strip and balance.. and it takes up less room when I bring it in after a nights imaging....

Also frees up the Dual Mount Bar for the Dual DSLR setup...

If it wanst for the bloomin' Synguider needing the guide star to be pretty much centered I wouldn't have used the WO Guide rings as they add lot of weight but should't flex... centerign the guidestar isnt a problem for widefield but is a PITB when imaging at medium to long FL's

[Psychobilly]

The postman was here at 8.30 this morning with a parcel from Opticron (Vixen UK Distributor) -Astronomia had arranged for the parts to come direct to me so I would have them for the weekend...

So I know have the Matching 0.67X Reducer for the ED81S and the Photo Wide adaptor... So the ED81S now becomes a fairly useful 419mm FL @ f5.2

The Photo wide adaptor has a 60mm diameter thread and a "dovetail" that uses the Outer ring from a "standard" T2 mount - this setup gives just about the maximum possible clear aperture to minimise vignetting ...

I decided not to buy the Vixen T2 adaptor but then found that their dovetail was ever so slightly too big to fit into the KOOD adaptors I normally uses... So 2 mins on the lathe had the parts fitting together - I took a wisker off the kood adaptor... So if you don't have access to a lathe - buy the "Vixen" T adaptor

The adaptor also has a "rotator" built in but with the long screws fitted they clash with the flash on the EOS DSLR when rotating through 90 degrees so one screw has to be temporarily removed if you need to turn the camera from DEC to RA aligned...

SO here it is mounted onto the back of the ED81S...

And the whole setup temporarily sitting on the wimpy EQ3 Pro tripod as it a bit damp outside...

Waiting for clear skies to give the new setup a "firstlight"...

Peter...

[robbie65]

very nice set up

[George]

So when you giving in to a CCD?

[Meademan]

I have a Gemini bar and have just bought the Nexguider to use in the back of my Meade 80mm APO as a guidscope. I now realise, that unless I'm lucky with what I'm trying to image whilst guiding, I wont be able to slew the guidescope at a tracking star, so I'm going to have to buy rings and do exactly as you have done.

Plus, the scopes look better piggybacked together IMO, rather than side by side on the Gemini Bar.

[Psychobilly]

So when you giving in to a CCD?

@George....

When I retire and hell has frozen over...

I still cant bring myself to push that button I'm struggling to get my enthusiasm back at the moment - lets hope "video enhanced observing" does it...

If I do it will be a OSC probably one of the newer "cylindrical" QHY8's

@Meademan

I tweaked the setup last weekend.. moved the ST80 forward as the with the reducer fitted the camera couldnt be rotated so that the long axis of the sensor was aligned to DEC without catchign on the Synguider and its cables.. this also improved the balance of what will most likely be the "normal" setup so that I could do away with the ankle weights on the dew shield...

I find the piggy back setup much easier to balance and attach to the mount I can also leave it all "built"...

Peter...