Balancing ED80 on CG-5 mount

[paler31]

Hi I have recently bought a skywatcher ED80 telescope and am using it with my celestron CG-5 mount, however to balance it properly I have to have the telescope quite far back in the rings. I want to use this telescope for imaging and when I attach my DSLR I fear I will not be able to balance it properly due to the weight of the camera. Have you guys got ant tips for balancing this scope or can I get some kind of weight to hang on the front of the scope?

John

[Rwetherell]

John - moving the counterweights down the bar should be sufficient to ensure that the scope is correctly balanced. I don't have any problem with balance with my ED80 and the 40d (which is a fair bit heavier than the 7d).

Richard

[Nicho]

I tend to have the ed80 as far as it can go in the rings like you ,and not far off at the bottom of the bar which connects it to the mount . But that is with a ff reducer and a 1100d off the back end and an st80 piggyback ,also when your not using your finder scope take it off if you dont need it .

Nick

[paler31]

Thanks for the replies. Moving the counter weight only balances the scope in one plane you need to move the scope on its dovetail mounting to balance it in the other direction.

John

[Carbon Brush]

I have in the past fitted longer dovetail bars to allow a wider range of balance positions.

Something I have always intended to do is put a printed ruler type scale on bars so I can record where they balance with a particular eyepeice or camera setup. Invariably I end up with bits of biro marked masking tape instead!