Dovetail safety bolts?

[knobby]

I've used my 150 Mak and the 127 before that and never had or used bolts at the end of the dovetail, presumably they are to stop the tube from sliding off the mount?

my C8 has them and wondered why... Is it because its just a heavier ota (although it is not actually heavier, just bigger)

only asking as ideally I'd need to remove the rear one to better balance the OTA...

thoughts please :-)

[ollypenrice]

Go and put them on all your scopes NOW!!! Don't even finish reading this post!!!!!! 

Seriously, if you don't use them, it will happen, and you know what 'it' is...

Dovetail clamps come loose. People make mistakes. Without end-stop bolts these lead to optical fatalities. Once during a spell when one of our scopes was idle for a month I went to check it and, with the hot-cold-hot-cold cycle, the dovetail had worked its way down through the saddle plate and only the stop-bolt had halted its suicidal progress.

Olly

[knobby]

So why do celestron put them on the C8 but skywatcher don't on the 150 Mak ?

Same company ;-)

[ollypenrice]

So why do celestron put them on the C8 but skywatcher don't on the 150 Mak ?

Same company ;-)

Who knows, but safety bolts should come as standard.

Olly

[Thalestris24]

I thought the end bolts were for adjusting cone error?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WatdQlPp22Y

Louise

[knobby]

They probably could be used for that but Celestron provide big fat safety lock bolts to stop the scope sliding off the mount