EdgeHD and DSLR imaging

[souls33k3r]

Cheers Olly for showing us your setup.

as for bolting the st80 scope down, I assume that the clamps are only provided with the skywatcher variant but with the Orion it's the rings right?

 

[ollypenrice]

I'm not sure how they are delivered under each brand but my ST80s from FLO came with tube rings. I have these attached to a Vixen dovetail and that goes into a mini saddle clamp riding on the main scope.

A few things to watch out for though:

- Make sure the back part of the ST80 is firmly screwed into the scope's main tube. (Three radial screws hold it in.)

- Once in focus be sure to lock the focus lock screw very tight to stop flex in the drawtube.

- You'll need an extension or two to come to focus. I use old de-lensed cheapo Barlow bodies. One of my cameras needs two of these to focus, the other only one. I Araldited my dual Barlows together to guard against flexure.

With respect to an earlier question in the thread about whether or not you could use a Mak to guide, my view would be that it would run the risk of mirror movement. It would also be very slow and have a small field for star finding.

I really think the ST80 is hard to beat for guiding and it's incredibly good value.

Olly

[tomato]

Having previously manually guided nearly 30 years ago (gulp!) the biggest pain apart from the guiding itself was finding a star in the field of view. I had a manual traverse arrangement on the guidescope mounting that allowed limited movement in one plane which helped, but it was never easy.

Now, with a little 60 mm refractor and a GPcam the FoV is always full of stars.

[ollypenrice]

30 minutes ago, tomato said:

Having previously manually guided nearly 30 years ago (gulp!) the biggest pain apart from the guiding itself was finding a star in the field of view. I had a manual traverse arrangement on the guidescope mounting that allowed limited movement in one plane which helped, but it was never easy.

Now, with a little 60 mm refractor and a GPcam the FoV is always full of stars.

I did it as well in the early days. An entirely horrible activity inevitably ending in a mistake!!!

Olly

[souls33k3r]

13 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I'm not sure how they are delivered under each brand but my ST80s from FLO came with tube rings. I have these attached to a Vixen dovetail and that goes into a mini saddle clamp riding on the main scope.

A few things to watch out for though:

- Make sure the back part of the ST80 is firmly screwed into the scope's main tube. (Three radial screws hold it in.)

- Once in focus be sure to lock the focus lock screw very tight to stop flex in the drawtube.

- You'll need an extension or two to come to focus. I use old de-lensed cheapo Barlow bodies. One of my cameras needs two of these to focus, the other only one. I Araldited my dual Barlows together to guard against flexure.

With respect to an earlier question in the thread about whether or not you could use a Mak to guide, my view would be that it would run the risk of mirror movement. It would also be very slow and have a small field for star finding.

I really think the ST80 is hard to beat for guiding and it's incredibly good value.

Olly

Cheers Olly, as always thids advice is really helpful.

can I reconfirm that when looking for a guide scope, what's the correct term for the clamps (and the right ones of course) if I was to check with the retailer whether the brand of ST80 comes with that or not?

[ollypenrice]

Tube rings are the rigid 'straps' which go round the tube. 

These attach to a Dovetail, though with an SCT you might find it easier to put an inverted dovetail along the top of the main scope. These are readily available, I think. My Meades both have them. You could then make a metal strip to which you'd bolt the guide scope tube rings and bolt the mini saddle plate to that.

You can also put the guide scope side by side but I like the sliding piggy backed guidescope because it allows you to fine tune the balance easily. The good retailers will sort you out. This is the kind of thing you need. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html

Although the purists would say, 'Don't guide through a diagonal or prism' I think it works fine. The erecting prism in the package above ought to let you reach focus. 

Olly

 

[knobby]

Just skipping back to the reducer and oag setup anyone that uses a Baader SCT to 2" visual back on their edge the ovl oag gives a 107 ish spacing if used like this ...

Worth a bash ...

[iapa]

I have 

• Skywatcher Dovetail Mounting Plates Choose: Long 33.5 cm
• Skywatcher Startravel 80 OTA
• a pair of ADM Vixen Dovetail Plate Adapter
• ToupTek Mono Imaging and Guide Camera

to mount on the stop of the rings on my 200PDS. It all seems to be very secure.