Little finder/guider project

[Frank the Troll]

Any ideas on this peeps to turn it into a finder or guider.  Shame to waste it

Its a draw tube from an old push pull Im upgrading.  60mm in diameter and 10" long.  It will take either a 1.25 or 2" diagonal/EP

Could I use a 60mm objective & housing?

[ChrisLX200]

Sure, why not? But you first have to find a suitable objective and you need to avoid spending silly money on it. Maybe AstroBoot offers something: http://www.astroboot.co.uk/AstroBoot

ChrisH

[Frank the Troll]

32 minutes ago, ChrisLX200 said:

Sure, why not? But you first have to find a suitable objective and you need to avoid spending silly money on it. Maybe AstroBoot offers something: http://www.astroboot.co.uk/AstroBoot

ChrisH

Already had a look on there, they have a couple of 60mm objectives at a fiver each, but not sure the focal lenght would work that well

[nameunknown]

Just built one rainy today. Used a cheap (£10 - end of range) "Tesco" scope (500mm) for the rack and pinion, dew shield and spotter - sawed the tube down to to about 10cm and replaced the objective with a lens from a set of (50p) 10x50 binos from a charity shop (they had been dropped on the floor, were "way out of line" and were about to be junked) - knackered bino's are really good, you get some prisms to play with as well as the EP lenses and a spare objective for free. All the tube needed was a bit of work with the Dremel and the objective cell from the bino's went straight in. Just clean the lot with IPA before final assembly. The 5mW laser used for rough pointing was peanuts on DX. The whole thing weighs next to nothing and with a webcam on it should make a half-decent guider.

I'm going to add a RasPi to this, once I get my Pi Autoguider LINUX software finished.

 

P

 

[Frank the Troll]

I shall have to find a cheapo 60mm scope then and give it a go, or just chop the cheapo down and put a better objective on it

 

[ChrisLX200]

The one thing a guider needs to be is Solid - no flex at all - so you will certainly have to do something about the cheap focuser or you'll never get it to guide properly. Extra clamp screws _may_ help to lock it in place, but you'll need to check nothing moves when focused.

ChrisH

[nameunknown]

Cheapo rack and pinion is not that bad - I packed it out with a bit of foam and it is fine.

P