My Skywatcher Star Aventurer With A Few Mods

[Mav359]

I haven't actually had a chance to use it yet but that hasn't stoped me having a play.... :-)

This is my Star Adventurer with a few additions, i have bought a second Dovetail L-bracket and removed the quick release wheel and added it to the other end off the existing Dovetail. 

I also added a guide on each quick release wheel to match the equatorial grid & ensure that both the finderscope and lens are pointing in the right place.  Once its polar aligned i can use these guides along with the polarscope dial & Stellarium to find targets easier.

Lastly i added a ferrous strip to the dovetail bracket and attached magnets to the polar illuiminator so that i can mount & balance the 'scope' and then polar align it rather then polar aligning the mount and then risk disturbing it after i load everything on to it.

I have a 14mm widefield lens and a samyang 500mm lens to play with and i'm using a QHY5L-II with a Orion finder guider. With the QHY5L-II I had to use the nose piece extension  and move the fider guider lens to almost the end to get it to focus, its all secure but i was supprised about how close it was to needing an extension.

Its all on a manfrotto tripod and fairly compact when broken down so hopefully it'll make a good travel scope too. Needs some cables and some dew control but otherwise shes ready to roll.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be good.

 

[skysculptor]

I like the set up!!  I have something similar but a bit more Heath Robinson , I jus use my 50 mm Finder guider on the quick release Dec wheel and my canon 550d on a ball head, where did you aquire the scales from? Looks like a good idea and I'm always looking to improve my set up?

[skysculptor]

Btw if you haven't downloaded it already check out the advanced firmware for the star adventuer it improves its functions no end.

[Stu]

Just now, skysculptor said:

Btw if you haven't downloaded it already check out the advanced firmware for the star adventuer it improves its functions no end.

Where do you get that from, and how do you upload it?

Cheers

[skysculptor]

Hi if you go to the skywatcher web site here http://www.skywatcher.com/product.php?cat=33&id=271 you'll see a link to the advanced firmware plus there a new manual for it then you down load the file and plug in your unit and update the firm ware instruction include in the original manuel. There's a new dial for it to you can print out. Hope this helps

 

[Mav359]

6 minutes ago, skysculptor said:

I like the set up!!  I have something similar but a bit more Heath Robinson , I jus use my 50 mm Finder guider on the quick release Dec wheel and my canon 550d on a ball head, where did you aquire the scales from? Looks like a good idea and I'm always looking to improve my set up?

Cheers

I made the scales, took a digital caliper to find out the Diameter of the quick release wheel and from there worked out the circumfrance. I leveled the dovetail and worked out where the exact top of the wheel was from there, Because i knew the circumfrance of the wheel i was able to work out the measument for 10degs and then used paint Shop Pro to make a 'To Scale' scale but rather then 360 or 0 at the top i have 90 and it counts back in 10degs from there in either direction matchin the equatorial grid.  Once i use the ALT bolt to match my position the 90deg mark points at polaris

Then just printed the scale out & tapped it on and repeated the process on the other wheel. They both line up and the are the same scale so they at the very least mean i know they both finder guider and camera are facing the same point, the scale won't be exactley right but it'll be pretty close which should make finding targets easier.

The plan is then to start with the dove tail level, which i have marked, i'll be facing south at the meridian and from there use stellarium to find the targets degrees in the sky and the the polarscope dial to count back/forward the hours against the Hour Angle approching the meridian, which should get me pretty close to targets i cant see with the naked eye. Only really applies to the 500mm lens teh widefield is just that.

 

 

[Mav359]

14 minutes ago, skysculptor said:

Btw if you haven't downloaded it already check out the advanced firmware for the star adventuer it improves its functions no end.

I'll deffo have a check of this....