looking for some advice !

[Vali x]

Hey there. i do need some help/advice here: as you can see in my pic, i am a quite tall guy and have quite tall scope. i encounter the same issue every time i use my scope and have friends around me ! since the EP on my newtonian is way up there, quite often i need to release the clamps to turn the OTA and to adjust the EP according to my "audience" height ! is quite annoying, cant say "get a chair" and i noticed this issue is disturbing the viewing and the weight distribution of my OTA (the tube slides down several inches!) is there a device/technique that can be used/mounted on my mount to gave me a degree of freedom when doing this ? i remember seeing long time ago some kinda of double rings, bigger than the ones from OTA..cant remember for sure....so, here it is folks..show me the light/path pls..

[Anders]

Hi,

You can make your own rotating rings very easily which would help a great deal, are these what you had in mind? http://www.andysshotglass.com/wilcox_rotating_rings.html

[John]

Here is another take on the rotating rings idea:

Rotating Rings for Reflector Telescopes

There are some commercially available from Antares but they wee very expensive when I last looked.

[umadog]

The answer is: get a chair! Seriously. The only reason you can mess about with the tube like that is because of the design of your scope. On a big Dob you wouldn't be able to do that and yet shorter people still get a look through the eyepiece. Often I use a high observing observing chair or sometimes a step ladder. In my experience, the step ladder is better as people get a bit freaked out by hopping onto a high stool in the dark. I had one fall off two weeks ago. The alternative, which you could do, is to rotate the tube so the eyepiece height is low and have the taller ones use an observing chair. Either way: get a chair!

[foundaplanet]

I have a small ally step ladder which is very handy and people can hold on to the top bar for support.