Twin refractors on Giro II

[Stu]

I was having a play around with my refractors last night so thought I would post a picture and brief description.

I use a Giro II mount, usually with either the 66mm or 106mm refractors on it with a counterbalance weight. Last night I popped both on. I had to slightly adjust the clamp on one side so they were both pointing to the same altitude. The tripod is an old surveyors tripod which is actually very good, steady and with little vibration. Goes nice and tall too.

With the tripod levelled nicely, and the scopes balanced, the movement is very smooth and it's a joy to use. I was using the WO 66 as a finder last night with an ethos in it, and the 106mm as high power using the nagler zoom. Was just looking at doubles really as the sky was rubbish despite the promising forecast. The moon looked pretty spectacular too a little later.

Cheers

Stu

[DirkSteele]

Nice steup. I have never used my Teleoptic Giro II with dual scopes, though I have recently done just that with my newer Teleoptic Giro Ercole mount.

[John]

Very nice Stu

I sometimes do the same with my Ambermille Aztech mount which is a clone of the Giro II I believe. It's fun switching between scopes comparing the views of the same object. I was doing just this the other night with my ED120 and ED102 fracs. Balancing with two scopes on the mount seems more delicate to me than with just one on there.

[ronaldo999]

Very nice setup, i suppose its also nice and quick to setup as well

[Stu]

Thanks all

It is very quick to setup which is why I use the giro so frequently these days.

I actually find the balancing a little easier with the two scopes, but project because the WO only has a short dovetail 'shoe' on it so I can't really do much to balance it. Having the Astrotech on there helps balance the whole lot. The balance point moves quite a bit if you have a heavy ep in, you have to balance it with the focuser in pretty much focussed position otherwise it goes wrong when you focus.

Last night I was comparing doubles between the two, with the ethos in the 106mm and the zoom at 6 mm in the 66mm giving roughly similar mags. I switched them round later on, despite the transparency being rubbish last night, the double double looked gorgeous through the 106mm at around x200, huge separation between the components and lovely star images.

Stu

[Mark at Beaufort]

Stu a nice setup. I have the SkyTee original mount and often use two scopes. For daytime viewing I have the Astro Tech 102mm frac and a PST on the other side. For night viewing I use my Skywatcher 6" Newt with my William Optics SD66 on the other.

Looking at your William Optics ZS66 I notice that you are using a 2" SCT diagonal. In the past I had a problem with inwards focus using an Antares diagonal - which one do you use?

Mark

[Stu]

Thanks Mark.

I often use my PST on the giro, and.have a spare sheet of solar film which I keep intending to make a filter for the 106mm to try exactly what you do. Must get round to it!

The diagonal on the 66mm is actually not my normal one. I bought the scope with a 2" WO SCT diagonal, can post a picture tonight. I've not had any problems achieving focus with my ep's. What has been causing you problems?

The diagonal in the picture is a Baader T2 type 2" which supposed has a shorter light path. I've bought a binoviewer recently mainly to use on my mak but have been playing around to see if I can get it to focus in either of my fracs. I know it will be tricky, I think I need a 1.25" diagonal as this setup didn't work :-(. Should be fine in the mak though.

Stu

[Mark at Beaufort]

Stu thanks for the reply. I bought an Antares 2" diagonal some time ago and it was quite large so I had problems with my then 2" EPs getting enough inwards travel on the SD66. In fact a bit like using binoviewers. I have ordered a very low profile 2" diagonal in the hope that this problem will be resolved. I fancy using my 20mm and 26mm Nagler on this scope.

I have a pair of AE binoviewers which when used with the 1.6x barlow does not give me enough inwards travel when I use the William Optics 1.25" dielectric diagonal on the SD66. I can only get focus if I use an old Amici prism diagonal.

For info I can obtain focus using these binoviewers on my Astro Tech frac even when I use my TeleVue 2" diagonal.

Mark

[Stu]

Hopefully that will do the job. Have never had any problems using 17t4 and 22t4 naglers in my 66mm.

Sounds like your astrotech is similar to mine. Similar focal ratios although doublet vs triplet which shouldn't make any difference.

I have a x2.6 compensator with my binoviewers, might try a 1.25" diagonal with that to see if it works

Stu