Piggyback Kit

[Marke998]

Hi Folks,

I bought one of these this week:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-scopes/guide-scope-bundle-suitable-for-piggy-backing.html

It arrived today but alas with no instructions. I can't find any help on SGL and FLO sadly left for the day without replying when I asked for some advice.

I am clueless how this all goes together. I have two screws - the 6mm bolts that come with the kit - that don't seem to fit in any screw hole apart from two holes on the dovetail that came with the scope I want to piggyback the ST 80 onto. I have two clamps that must fit on a dovetail but I don't know which one and they have two loose screws in each that I do not know if I need or if I do, where they fit. I cannot see a way to connect the dovetail to the ST80 if indeed that's what I'm supposed to do.

FLO advised I buy the kit as it would meet my needs if bought it with a dovetail which I also bought from them as per their recommendation.

I'm happy to admit that I'm rubbish when it comes to trying to work out this sort of thing for myself but I have tried for the last two hours but nothing works. If FLO just put some instructions on their website it would help but alas there is no such thing.

If any of you have bought this kit to piggyback on an 80ED or similar, I would be really grateful for your help.

All the best,

Mark.

[Helen]

What does your current set up look like?  Has it got tube rings?  If so you could fit the dovetail to those tube rings and the two clamps to the ST80 and then slide the clamps onto the dovetail.  Or the other way around.. put the clamps on the tube rings of the bottom scope, the dovetail on the st80 and then slide the st80 into the clamps

Helen

Edit: just re-read, you said the dovetail doesn't fit on the ed80

[Marke998]

4 minutes ago, Helen said:

What does your current set up look like?  Has it got tube rings?  If so you could fit the dovetail to those tube rings and the two clamps to the ST80 and then slide the clamps onto the dovetail.  Or the other way around.. put the clamps on the tube rings of the bottom scope, the dovetail on the st80 and then slide the st80 into the clamps

Helen

Edit: just re-read, you said the dovetail doesn't fit on the ed80

Hi Helen

 

i have rings on the ed80 but I'm not sure what to do. The top of the rings have two screw holes, one of which has a screw in it for attaching a DSLR. I have removed this but can't see how I can attach the dovetail to the rings. Neither can I see how to attach the dovetail to the st80. It's very frustrating. I have this great kit that I'm dying to try out but can't. 

 

Mark.

[Helen]

Hmmm... is this the dovetail you have? http://www.firstlightoptics.com/az-goto/skywatcher-st80-dovetail.html  if so you should be able to attach it to the st80.  The clamps should then be attached to the tube-rings of the scope you want to piggy back on to (you said you have screws to fit this, yes?) with the dovetail holder facing up and then the ed80 dovetail should slot in...

If this doesn't work, post some pictures...

Helen

[Marke998]

Hi Helen,

I think I know what's wrong. My guess is that the recommended solution is incomplete. Here's how I think it works. There's a small plastic mounting plate at the base of the st80 rings held on by two bolts. If I remove this I can replace it with the two clamps that came with kit using the two 6mm screws also in the kit. I should then be able to attach the dovetail - which I had to buy extra to the kit - to the top of the ed80's rings (where you could attach a photographic camera) by removing the camera adapter just mentioned and putting screws through the threadless oversized holes at either end of the dovetail and then screwing them to the two mounting rings on the ed80. If I was able to do this, I would then just have to fix the dovetail to the st80 using the clamps that were attached to the st80 rings to start with. However, it goes wrong because there are no screws to attach the dovetail to the ed80. I have tried using the camera adapter screw which is the correct thread size but it is too long and would hit the ed80 if screwed it in tightly.

I am now going to give up as I might be wrong in the way I have put this together and to be honest I'm fed up having wasted too much of my time on something that did not need to be this hard. I'm very disappointed with FLO on this one because the order from start to finish has been quite a mess. This is extra annoying because I could have got everything elsewhere cheaper but I went to FLO because of great customer service in the past. I won't bore you with it but at least six things went wrong with my order :-(

Thanks for trying to help.

 Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Scott]

Hi Mark,

I think you are giving up far too easily :D. Astro imaging is full of these little struggles. Ive done a similar thing with my ed80 and 60mm scope so I'll  take a pic to try and help.  If you were to post some pics of the problem you will be more likley to get help. some of us here are simple folk ;). give it more than 24 hrs to try and resolve your problems,,,,it's the nature of astro imaging

[FLO]

19 hours ago, Marke998 said:

Hi Folks,

I bought one of these this week:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-scopes/guide-scope-bundle-suitable-for-piggy-backing.html

It arrived today but alas with no instructions. I can't find any help on SGL and FLO sadly left for the day without replying when I asked for some advice.

Hi Mark, 

Sorry to hear your last email missed us. It arrived at 4:04 pm, we closed at 4:30 and my colleague who you were conversing with left at 4pm to be at the Norman Lockyer Observatory. 

The bundle you purchased was first made available only a week ago but it isn't anything new, we have only grouped together the items most often purchased for auto-guiding. Our intention was to make things easier, not more difficult. 

The bundle you chose is intended to fit the ST80 to an existing dovetail mounted to the top of a telescope. It should be straightforward: Remove the original mounting plate fitted to the ST80 then attach the ADM clamps to the ST80 tube-rings using the supplied M6 bolts. Then you simply slide the clamps onto the dovetail fitted to the top of your telescope.

Reading your post it looks like it isn't assembling the bundle that is proving difficult, it is mounting the additional dovetail you purchased onto your 80ED. You need two regular bolts to do this, the ADM clamps should include some spare bolts that can be used for this purpose. Do you have them? (As I type this I am hoping my colleagues in packing didn't mistakenly think the two M6 bolts 'replaced' the ones normally supplied with the clamps). 

When back at my desk Monday I will update the product description to prevent further confusion. 

2 hours ago, Marke998 said:

... I went to FLO because of great customer service in the past. I won't bore you with it but at least six things went wrong with my order :-( 

I would like to think I would have heard if so many things had gone wrong with an order. I am posting from home but if you PM me your order number I promise to investigate when back at my desk Monday. If we have made mistakes we will learn and make amends. Promise. 

Please don't let this spoil your weekend, if you are missing bolts we can easily dispatch more Monday for delivery Tuesday 

HTH, 

Steve

[Scott]

I hope these pics are of some help

Oh @Helen Do you recognise my guide camera

[FLO]

Your setup is a little different Scott, you have fitted the clamps to your 80ED tube-rings and a dovetail to... whatever telescope that is  

Here are the parts supplied with the auto-guiding bundle intended for piggy-backing an ST80: 

 

[Scott]

ahh, I see Flo, I  must admit that my setup required a bit of cobbling . Oh, its a 60mm Altair Trastro triplet  an expencive little guide scope

[Marke998]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all your comments, advice and photos. With the help of FLO we got everything sorted. It was because I assumed I was doing something wrong and didn't appreciate that I needed a bit more kit that I ended up struggling. Lesson learned!

I have used the ED80 a couple of times now. Fabulous optics. I can't wait to get the chance to start imaging.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Helen]

Yay!  Glad you are sorted out   Enjoy your kit

Helen

[cjdawson]

Glad to hear everything is sorted.

 

Actually, this post is a good show as to why FLO is now my first port of call.  Whilst I've not yet ordered anything from FLO I get the very strong impression that the customer service side of things is superb.

[iapa]

Here's my step by step - which I just did after reading this thread.

10 minutes

tools - 3/16" allan key, cross (no not an angry one :)) head screw driver (PZ2 in my case)

1. fit the clamps to the ST80 as shown

1a to do this, I fitted the clamps loosely to the ST80 rings, then loosen the lamp jaws to slide the dover tail in, and tighten, just enough the the dovetail can slide a little. This will help to get the clamps parallel and also the rings.

1b Align the unthreaded hole at the end of the dove tail with the bolt holding the clamp to the ST80 ruing, and tighten the bolt

r

1c repeat at the other end

1d Remove the dove tail.

2. Mounting to the main scope

remove the screw from the maid ring ( usually used for a DSLR)

remove the black wheel lock first

3. attach the dove tail (this is not supplied as a part of the kit discussed, I had purchased one for the purpose anyway).

 note the bolts I had are a tad short, so I will be replacing those.

4. attach the ST80 to the dovetail

To do this, I found that you need to remove one of the bolts holding the dovetail to the main scope rings (the clamp will come apart before it is wide enough to go straight down over the dove tail.

So, tighten the clamp jaws, just to be closed. Undo 5 half turns - that seemed to bb enough to live along the dovetail on the main rings. (EDIT, 2 and 2/4 turns - 11 quarter turns was just enough to fir to the dovetail without sliding it along, an eighth of a turn over that was too much).

Remove one of the bolts holding the dovetail to the main rings ( the picture is replacing th bolt after mounting th eST80).

slide the clamps over that dovetail.

Tighten the clamps

fit the bold back to the end of the dovetail (see above pic)

5. [edit] when I redid the images, I sorted this

Spot the deliberate mistake.

 

The rings on the ST80 have been fitted with the locking screws on the opposite side. Doh!!

[iapa]

On 9 April 2016 at 12:46, FLO said:

Your setup is a little different Scott, you have fitted the clamps to your 80ED tube-rings and a dovetail to... whatever telescope that is  

Here are the parts supplied with the auto-guiding bundle intended for piggy-backing an ST80: 

 

@FLO

Feel free to take my we tutorial and post it with your bundle if you wish.

[iapa]

On 19 April 2016 at 13:09, cjdawson said:

Glad to hear everything is sorted.

 

Actually, this post is a good show as to why FLO is now my first port of call.  Whilst I've not yet ordered anything from FLO I get the very strong impression that the customer service side of things is superb.

seconded.

With one exception, a QHY CCD, over the past three years I thnk that everything astronomical has been sourced from FLO.

In over a dozen orders, several were multi part, they once forgot to tell me that one part would ship later. Horrendous offence. LOL.

If I've had questions, answered within hours at worst.... well I did as on the web site around 3am on a Monday.