I have a cunning plan...I think?

[Tommy B]

Well i'm here again.....staring in the general direction of orion yet I cannot see a damn thing. In this time of clouded frustration the mind gets to work on other things!

I have been wracking my brain for a way to make my clear nights more productive as the weather seems to be soooo damn aweful almost all the time!

The idea is simple in concept but I don't have the luxury of knowing how it will perform in real life so would really appreciate some advice from the more experienced imagers about possible problems and issues with my planned setup.

I currently use a equinox 80ED pro for most of my dso imaging but thought I might be able to double my efforts by dual mounting two ED 80's on the same mount each with a cooled ccd firing away at the same target, thus doubling my productivity.

It seems simple to me but am I overlooking something? are there specific issues I should look out for when using side by side mounted scopes, and can I run two ccd cameras from one laptop? (aside from having enough usb ports!).

[RobH]

You're missing nothing Tommy....it can be done. I've done it a few times with one scope shooting RGB and another, luminance, or one scope shooting high res and another, widefield.

If you have an OAG, then that scope can be imaging and guiding the whole setup, or you can use a third scope as a guidescope.

With short FL imaging scopes, a finderguider is perfect as it's nice and light.

You just need to make sure everything is bolted down really solidly so as not to suffer from differential flexure.

Cheers

Rob

[Tommy B]

Thanks for that rob:icon_salut: I guide using a finderguider and it certainly performs amazingly, the whole setup puts next to no stress on my Neq6 and I'm hoping this won't change much with a second ED80 (assuming I balance it well enough).

I use a one shot colour ccd due to my limited time but being able to shoot luminance at the same time hadn't crossed my mind....very excited now! I think the Equinox 80 has also come down in price on FLO since I bought mine.

Better stop rubbing my hands together now less I start a fire

[RobH]

I use 2 x 80mm scopes on an HEQ5 and it handles it easily.....as you say, balance is the key. Your NEQ6 will laugh at that load