Counterweight advice

[RT65CB-SWL]

I have three scopes (TeleVue Ranger, C6/SCT & ETX105)and I mount them on a Tele-Optic Giiro mk.ll (not all at the same time). The tripod is a SkyWatcher aluminium model I purchased from "Astroboot" for £12.00 GBP about year and half ago. I will only use one scope on one arm if I want to 'grab and go' and it is nomally the Ranger. As the C6/SCT is the heaviest OTA, I am a little paranoid in case it topples over to one side.

I need some counterweight advice if I mount one scope and have a counterweight mounted on the other arm without having to remove the dovetail clamp:-

Q1 what would be the best way of achieving this?

Q2 would I need weight(s) equal to the weight of the individual scope(s)?

Thank you for reading and clear skies,

Philip

[Digz]

I'm not familiar with that mount but a quick search on google shows it being used with a single scope and counterweight.

I don't know if that helps or not....

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi Digz,

I know most Giro users remove the whole arm assembly and attach a counterweight to the horizontal shaft.

[Digz]

Ah ok, I can see that now. So you want to try and figure a way to achieve balance without doing this?

could you not leave the setup balanced with two scopes on? Alternatively I wonder if you could fashion a heavy enough 'weight' with a spare dovetail bar.....hmmmm

[AndyH]

Here's what I did when I needed to put a counterweight shaft onto my old Swiss made W.O. EZ-Touch(a rebadged AOK-AYO), that I had set up for twin scope viewing.

Like you, I didn't want to take off the 2nd saddle, so I looked out my most beaten up dovetail* and cut about 3" off it. Drilled and tapped a hole in the centre to suit the thread on the shaft.

Fit the shaft to the short dovetail, fit to mount, fit weights. Job done.

* It just so happened that the Telescope-Service dovetail I had was rather chewed and as luck would have it, it's a solid lump of alu, so I had a thickness of about 15mm to thread.

You could also aquire a a 3" long piece of alu, say 40x15mm flat. Stick it in a vice and get a heavy file on it, to form the angled edge(s). Or. If you have access to an angle grinder, job done in 5 minutes.

[Stardust]

I've been having the same issue with a Giro III, mind you a TAL 100RS is a heavy scope. I have turned and threaded a Stainless steel bar to fit. At the moment I take off the second saddle but I think there will be enough metal to bore out the centre of one saddle so I can just screw in the bar when required. I have made it to fit the weights from my HEQ5

Had two small refractors on it for a public observing session which worked really well.