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WO 66mm


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Just brought a as new second hand williams optice gold 66mm scope. I use a NEQ6 mount but the dovetail foot on the scope is so small the is no way I can move the scope forward to balance the unit. Also the focuser hits the mount and prevents any futher movement forward. This is usless as by the time I have fitted my QHY8L the mount is so out of balance that I can not use it. Is there another dovetail unit I can get that will fit to the scope that will also raise it allowing the focuser to miss. Do I need to use rings with this scope? Also will the Rigel QuikFinder base fit the scope barrel as that will allow me to use my quikfinder on that scope. Jay

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Hi Jay, congrats on the new scope, its a common problem, the simplest solution is to bolt a longer dovetail to the existing 'foot'. There was a similar thread a few months ago with lots of photos of other members solutions, wil try and dig it out.

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Hi, Jay

Here is a photo of my 71mm - might give you some ideas.

1. dovetail bar screwed onto the bottom of the foot, enabling the balance point to move towards the eyepiece end.

2. rotate the focusser so that the focussing lock screw is accessible - actually, you will want to do this first, because the screw I needed to loosen to do that is now hidden underneath the dovetail bar.

I believe it is also possible to remove the foot and put it back on the other way round, but I haven't done that because would that would bring it mightily close to the screw I mentioned in (2) - they may even be trying to occupy the same space.

Like this, my scope will balance with the camera attached to the back (I haven't got my new FW yet, but am hopeful!).

HTH

PICT0060.JPG

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I had exactly the same problem with my WO Megrez 72 and as the others have said, bolting the foot to a longer dovetail bar resolves the issue. However, in my case (and perhaps yours too) the focus lock knob fouled the new dovetail bar so I got a small block of aluminium roughly the same size as the 'foot' drilled two holes in that and used the block as a spacer between the foot and the dovetail bar to completely resolve the issue.

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Seems I am in good company. Many thanks for you replies. I have found a dovetail bar and drilled 2 holes and to my pleasure I found 2 allen screws of the right thread. Problem solved for now. Focuser still a little close to dovetail but I will solve that next. Just need a clear sky to play with it. I will be at Lucksall next week if any of you are there I can say thanks in person.  Jay

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White Dwarf talked about the focus locking screw on his 71mm scope. The WO66mm has a allen screw adjustment that tightens the movement of the focus tube but does not lock it. There is a finger tight ring that locks it after adjustment but no where on the scope is there anything to lock the tube if the scope was at the zenith and had any weight on it. Am I missing something as there were no simple intructions with the scope. There is a fringer tightening screw on the top of the  scope tube but I do not know its purpose?  Any ideas would be welcome.  Jay

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Yes, it is confusing because the term "focusser locking screw" seems to be used in WO literature in two different ways.

(1) There is one that sits on the black bar between the two focusser wheels - you focus the scope and then tighten this to stop the focus from changing.

william-optics-zenithstar-zs71-ed-2013 - focus lock.JPG

(2) The other is on the other side of the scope, and holds the entire focusser assembly in place.

william-optics-zenithstar-zs71-ed-2013.JPG

If this is loosened, the entire focusser assembly can be rotated so that the focusser and the foot end up on opposite sides of the scope (when stood on its foot, the focusser bar runs across the top of the scope, as in the photo in my previous post). Doing this provides a bit more room for the focusser and also allows you access to screw (1), which is pretty much inaccessible if you attach the dovetail bar and keep the focusser underneath.

Hope this makes sense. But do bear in mind, mine is the ZS71, so the specifics may be different on the 66.

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Just found a photo of an 66ED from ABS. If I am reading this correctly, screw (1) is indicated by the red arrow [looks as if it is actually a black screw on the 66], screw (2) is indicated by the blue arrow, but it may be worth getting those details confirmed by a 66 owner just in case they are in the same place but do different things!

William-Optics-66ED-APO.jpg

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Brilliant. Your images are tops. They detail what I was saying exactly. The 71 is different. The red arrove points to the screw that tightens the focuse tube travel but does not lock it unless someone tells me diffent? the top blue arrow helps to tell what it does as I was moaning about the focus line up hitting the mount but now I have repositioned the whole thing and all is good. I really need to improve my computing skills to be able to download and show the images that you have so once again many many thanks for your time and effort . Jay

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14 hours ago, jaygpoo said:

The WO66mm has a allen screw adjustment that tightens the movement of the focus tube but does not lock it. There is a finger tight ring that locks it after adjustment

I believe the red arrow is pointing to the knob which Jay describes in the quote above, I do not believe this locks the focusser in place for heavy loads, I believe there is a third knob (hidden in @Demonperformer's pic) which does this.

So I think there are three knobs on the ZS66:

  1. Allow locking of focusser drawtube (hidden in above pic but shown as No. 1 on the ZS71 pic)
  2. Allow rotation of focusser assembly (blue arrow in above pic and No. 2 on the ZS71 pic)
  3. Fixing the focusser tension after adjustment with hex screw (red arrow in the above pic) 

I shall have a look when I get home to confirm and post a pic to identify (if anyone is still interested!). :) 

 

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