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My ST80 isn’t really working on a camera tripod

rawhead

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jgs001

jgs001

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Jon, I'm in the process of doing the exact same thing with my Vista. I understand the Vista and ST80 are the same scope. I bought tube rings and a dovetail bar and need to fix them together, then when the mount arrives I'll be up and running. I did it for probably the same reasons you did.

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rawhead

rawhead

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Jon, I'm in the process of doing the exact same thing with my Vista. I understand the Vista and ST80 are the same scope. I bought tube rings and a dovetail bar and need to fix them together, then when the mount arrives I'll be up and running. I did it for probably the same reasons you did.

I've got the rings, where did you get the dovetail bar?

What mount did you go for?

Cheers

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John

John

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An ST80 works very well on an AZ-3 mount. I think there is one for sale on Astro Buy & Sell for £48 including delivery. You will need an adaptor to joint the mount to the photo socket on the scope I think - like this:

4185_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

John

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rawhead

rawhead

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An ST80 works very well on an AZ-3 mount. I think there is one for sale on Astro Buy & Sell for £48 including delivery. You will need an adaptor to joint the mount to the photo socket on the scope I think - like this:

4185_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

John

Looks good but I would like the ability to motorise at some point...

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jgs001

jgs001

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Jon, I got the medium length skywatcher dovetail from FLO. Give some balancing leeway. I'm gonna rotate the scope so that the focusser knobs are vertical. This means that the finder attachment points will be in the same position they are on the camera tripod. I got the same mount from another ebay auction, and it should arrive in the next couple of days. I just need to workout what the correct screw size is for the tube ring attachments, or maybe just get some bolts.

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jgs001

jgs001

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Jon, my nexStar SLT mount just arrived, here's a piccie. I still need to drill out a hole on the dovetail but nearly there..

4287_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

For some reason I decided on the old Batman villain HQ jaunty angle for that photo...

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rawhead

rawhead

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Jon, my nexStar SLT mount just arrived, here's a piccie. I still need to drill out a hole on the dovetail but nearly there..

4287_normal.jpeg

(click to enlarge)

For some reason I decided on the old Batman villain HQ jaunty angle for that photo...

Excellent :)

My mount should arrive today, I won't be far behind you...

Are you using the diagonal that came with the scope? If not, what replacement did you go for?

Are you only using 1 mounting ring?

Picked up a power tank from Maplins yesterday. That's all charged and ready to go.

Cheers Jon (mines black by the way :wink:)

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jgs001

jgs001

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The diagonal is one I bought from Barkis, a Meade I think, I had got a scopes 'n skies cheapy (£6) but as it was all plastic (including the nose piece) didn't dare put any weight (the Hyperions spring to mind :wink:) on it and I had to keep cleaning plastic shards from the mirror. This one holds the Hyperions nicely. I now have two tube rings on there, I had to drill out the second hole in the dovetail bar to get the M6 bolt through as the thread in the hole was wrong. I'm currently using 8 high power Alkali AA batteries, I'll see how I get on, but feel I gonna need to get a power tank at some point.

I've setup the long and lat, the date and time on the handset... Now just gotta test it, although it slews nicely and appears to be quite well balanced, the 5mm Hyperion in the back doesn't cause it any problems. The medium length dovetail allows me leeway for balancing. I had no problem fitting the rings on the dovetail with M6 roofing bolts and then sliding the dovetail into the fork arm, the bolts use quite low profile heads.

Good luck on getting up and running with yours and Clear Skies for a proper test.

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jgs001

jgs001

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I did a quick test of the SLT mount last night. Set up in the dining room. Whilst this might make it hard to see the sky, last night, this wasn't a problem as the clouds had taken up residence over my house, typical. After a quick one star guesstimate align on Polaris, I know roughly where it should be, I told the mount to go find me Saturn. The scope ended up pointing in about the right direction, so it looks like I got it set up properly. Oddly, and this I'm not sure about, instead of slewing the shortest distance, about 90 degrees, it slewed the long way around, going nearly a full 270 degrees instead. I then told it to slew to Mars, M42 and Sirius, and each time it pointed in roughly the right direction and once aligned tracked. Given the lack of stars, I'd say it's working well. I just hope I can get to test it out properly soon. The forecast says that it should be clear on Friday, and I'm not going to get a chance to use it then, how typical is that ?

BTW, for the power tank connection, do you need an additional cable, if so which one ?

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rawhead

rawhead

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BTW, for the power tank connection, do you need an additional cable, if so which one ?

The power Tank from Maplins comes with an adapter. That may work. (Haven’t had a chance to try it yet)

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rawhead

rawhead

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Jon, my nexStar SLT mount just arrived, here's a piccie. I still need to drill out a hole on the dovetail but nearly there..

Hi JG,

SLT delivered today :) Clear skies :) :) No way of attaching scope to mount :wink:

Did you get this dovetail? http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=swdovetails&cat=62

You said you went for medium. Should I do the same? (I don't like having to modify new stuff, drilling etc.)

Have you got clear skies tonight? How's it performing?

Cheers JonB

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jgs001

jgs001

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Jon, excellent news. I got the medium (21cm). The reason being the screws for the finder are on the tube itself not the focusser. This means that the rings don't seat 100% on the tube itself, the rear ring is on the front edge of the focusser (probably the wrong thing to do, but the only way to mount). There was already a hole in the dovetail at that point, but it had a screw thead in it. As the location was ideal for my tube ring, I used a suitable metal drill to remove the screw thread so the M6 bolt I used to attach the tube ring went through. As I have a couple of Hyperions, the medium also gives me some leeway for moving the position of the scope back and forwards to help balance the weight. I've tested the Alt movement with the 5mm Hyperion in position and the mount had no problems at all (I've shifted the dovetail so that the balance point with the Hyperion in place is approx centre to the fork arm).

I would imagine that the short dovetail would probably suffice though, and I'd guess that the tube rings on the ST80 should fit in the drilled holes. Might be worth a call to Steve @ FLO to check.

I have had one night of clear skies, last night, but I was out at a really nice dark site, involved in activities that precluded the scope :). I did however take my bins :wink: and had a look through them. Of course, the weather is now as it's been since 1 hour after the mount arrived....

I did a quick guess align test and the slewing appears to take the scope to about the right sort of places in the sky, so it does seem to be working ok. Take a look at my <a href=http://johnsastroblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/cloud-summoning.html>blog</a> for me experiences (such as they are) so far. Next thing is to order the maplin power tank. At the moment I'm running on 8 AA batteries.

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  • 2 weeks later...
rawhead

rawhead

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Quick update…

The short dovetail was delivered from FLO and it didn’t fit the mount. :afro:

All doom and gloom I phoned Steve at FLO to find out about returns paying the extra £5 for the medium dovetail etc. :|

Steve said he was at fault and will post a medium free of charge AND I can keep the short one. :occasion5:

Excellent customer service from FLO. Very happy. Thanks Steve!

:thumbright:

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