Advice needed

[Frank the Troll]

Hi peeps

bit of help needed

I intend to dip my toe in the water with imaging, and have now got a SW ST80 OTA which I intend to piggyback and use on my OO

Iv'e been searching, but cannot find a suitable mount

Any ideas please?

[hemihaggis]

there are dozens of suitable mounts easily available ... any good retailer will have at least half a dozen mounts/variations available ..

[Frank the Troll]

Yes plenty around such as the one FLO has

but at £86 its a bit ott and more than I paid for the tube!!

Am afraid not all of us have deep sky pockets

[hemihaggis]

hi frank ... im not meaning to be hard on you here but astrophotography is expensive ... £86 will not buy you field flattner nevermind a mount capable of long exposure photography .

most astrophotgraphers will tell you that a suitable mount will cost £500-1000

the book "every photon counts " is a great read and will tell you everything you need for AP

a cheap way to get remarkably good images of the planets and moon is a webcam and free software ..

frank i have re-read your post .... do you mean a mount to attatch your st 80 yo your large scope ??

your post says you have two scopes ??

do you not have a mount at all yet ??

[JamesF]

What sort of imaging did you have in mind? Planetary/solar system, or DSO?

James

[Frank the Troll]

ok, lets clarify

I need a mount or some way to piggyback the ST80 to the orion optices, thats all

Camera wise im ok, I have a large collection

webcam wise, I can butcher a webcam, fairly easily, and software is not a prob, as Im a pc geek, and can also make my own cables etc

But Im am rather limited on pockets, just need some way of piggybacking the st80 at an affordable price, that doesnt cost more than the st80 OTA

Hope that helps

Imagine wise, Im aiming for DSO's

Sorry, I just object to paying over price for bits of metal, that production wise cost pennies, and then over inflated to cater to a specfic market

[JamesF]

Right, I'd say the first things you need that i'm not aware you have are at the very least an RA drive for the mount and a polar scope. You may be able to drift align without the polar scope, but it's helpful to be able to get close to start with.

With the EQ3-2 you *might* be able to image unguided for short periods, in which case there's no need to piggy-back the ST80 at all (unless that was what you were planning to use for imaging?). You'd probably have to spend a bit of time tuning up the RA axis and on polar alignment, but you *might* get away with just running the RA motor and imaging with the newt from there.

I very seriously doubt that the EQ3-2 tripod is up to imaging with such a large scope though. You may need to think about some sort of pier.

If you want to go for the full guiding option then reading some of stan26's postings is probably a good plan. I might be tempted to abandon the ST80 as a guidescope and look at using a webcam + 8x50 or 9x50 finder as a guide cam. I think it would make a lot of sense to have dual RA & DEC motors for that though, at which point you're really not that far off that Stan is using.

I'm half-wondering if it wouldn't be simpler to put a camera on the ST80 using a 9x50 finder as a guidescope and put that on the EQ3-2. It's probably a lot easier on the mount.

If you're really set on piggy-backing the ST80 on the newt, I think I'd look for some of the rings that are normally used to attach it to an EQ mount and see if they couldn't be made to fit to the rings you already have on the newt. It's not ideal because you really want to be able to move the scope around to find a suitable guide star, but it's the cheapest method I can think of.

James

[hemihaggis]

ok, lets clarify

I need a mount or some way to piggyback the ST80 to the orion optices, thats all

Camera wise im ok, I have a large collection

webcam wise, I can butcher a webcam, fairly easily, and software is not a prob, as Im a pc geek, and can also make my own cables etc

But Im am rather limited on pockets, just need some way of piggybacking the st80 at an affordable price, that doesnt cost more than the st80 OTA

Hope that helps

Imagine wise, Im aiming for DSO's

Sorry, I just object to paying over price for bits of metal, that production wise cost pennies, and then over inflated to cater to a specfic market

james f is spot on ...an eq 3 is not going to cut it for your scope with an st80 piggybacked on it as a guide scope ... then add weight of camera ,cables ,ect ect ..... im must guessing that to carry your scope plus guidescope rings ,dslr , cables ect you are looking at an eq6 .

you say you want to image dso`s , have a good look through the imageing section on this site . check what people are using for mounts and guiding .

i belive the max weight you can put on an eq3 is 7 kilos ...and a rule of thumb for photography is only use 2/3 of the limit .

for a decent imaging set up you will need a motorised eq5 mount of some sorts ..£500 ...a webcam for guiding £50, a good refractor eg sw equinox/evostar around £400 ,focal reducer £150+ , field flattner £100 , t thread adapter for dslr £20 . batinov mask £20 ,plus assorted cables and connecters ect £100 around £1200 for this lot to start with ...if you want to use a reflector you will need an eq6 mount ...you can add £500 to this amount ..so you will be heading for £2000

i aint having a go frank just being .... frank with you, lol

sorry for being real

[JamesF]

Doesn't mean you *can't* do DSO imaging with an EQ3-2 at all though, but see Stan's EQ3-2 imaging threads for details.

James

[Frank the Troll]

I think some DIY is in order, so, will get some rings and then make my own plate. Webcams are cheap, and will strip and mod myself

So, looks like two options!

The Orion is really quite lightweight so piggybacking shouldn't be a problem, but will probably sell the EQ3 and upgrade.

Or just find a used affordable EQ3/EQ5 for the ST80, and used it independly for imaging, and use the RA finder from the orion as a guider, as James said

I'm half-wondering if it wouldn't be simpler to put a camera on the ST80 using a 9x50 finder as a guidescope and put that on the EQ3-2. It's probably a lot easier on the mount.

James

ermm, might have to sell the old girl (Tal-1) don't think the OH would be too happy with three scopes.

Hemihaggis, keep being real, its NP. Will be buying used, a bit at a time.

[todd8137]

trouble is would you race a mini against a F1 car same things with mounts its not a cheap side of the hobby mounts are ....................

[JamesF]

EQ5 mounts seem to pop up reasonably regularly on ebay and AB&S, with or without the motors. One way or another you're going to need the motors if you're DSO imaging. Few mount models come with tripods that are rigid enough for DSO imaging either, so I'd recommend thinking about a pier of some sort.

The problem with using the newt on the EQ3 for imaging isn't really just the weight, but the fact that there's a fair bit of mass well away from the mount, especially at the mirror end. That really doesn't help with stability.

If money is a significant issue then I'd definitely suggest you have a read through some of stan26's postings about his EQ3-2 based imaging rig. It's still probably the most economical way to do it and I'm sure there's a good deal that could be learnt even using your ST80 for imaging with a finder-guider on the EQ3-2. If you want to continue to use the newt at the same time, it really shouldn't be that difficult to make up a dob-style mount for it to free up the EQ3-2 for the ST80.

James

[Frank the Troll]

Cheers guys

Yep, either way, Im going to need a better mount with motors

So will just have to keep checking fleabay and AstroBuy

Ermm, didnt think about a dob mount for the Orion, will have to do a bit of searching, shouldnt be to hard to make one!