My new Skywatcher 80 ED Pro and AZ4 - Dovetail Mounting Bolts

[Oortrageous]

Hello all - I'm hoping that someone can help me with a little bit of an issue I'm having with my new set up. After a recent relationship break up my 200P dobsonian had to go (I just didn't have room to take it), and I've been without a scope for about 7 months! Which left me lots of time to decide on what it was going to get replaced with! As much as I loved the views from the 200P, owing to the amount of multi day camping trips I do I ended up deciding on an ED80. Although coupled with the AZ4 it's nearly as big as the 200p (which surprised me!) the fact that everything packs down individually makes it a lot more transportable for me when it has to be packed in alongside a tent, wood burning stove, logs etc. I also figured that a nice rich field scope will always make a decent partner for a bigger dob in years to come when I have a bit more storage space (beauty of this set up is it can go under the bed!). 

Right, now the rambling is out of the way! The scope arrived last week after what had seemed like 2 weeks of clear skies. It has predictably been cloudy since, but on setting up the scope I have noticed a bit of an issue. The bolts used to secure the dovetail to the tube rings are chuffing massive, as you can see below, protruding a good way beyond the bottom of the dovetail.

Whilst this would usually I'm sure amount only to a minor annoyance with most mounts, it does seem to stump the AZ4 a bit. As marked by the red oval in the below, the bolts foul against part of the mount. This prevents it reaching zenith.

It wouldn't be the first time I've missed something, so I wondered if anyone with this set up could have a look and let me know if I'm failing to make some leap of logic with this equipment! I could mount the scope more centrally on the dovetail which would let me reach zenith, but with the ED80 being quite a short tube and fairly back heavy this seems to be where it is happiest balance wise. Could well be I'm missing something here, as this is my first refractor! Just wanted to check before I order some shorter bolts (or take a junior hacksaw to these ones).

Thanks for looking, any wisdom greatly appreciated

[CraigT82]

Is it possible to put the screws in from the scope side? Ie.  remove scope from rings and screw them in through the rings first, into the dovetail? 

[Hadron]

Hello there. I'm not familiar with that particular scope, so stand to be corrected, but to my mind they look more like the cone error adjustment screws (most likely not the correct terminology  ). If this is correct the dovetail will be held in place by another screw between the offending articles and I can't see any reason why you couldn't simply remove the two that foul the mount. As I said I may be wrong but it's something simple to look at as a starting point. 

Hopefully this may be of some help.

James 

[Oortrageous]

Thanks for the suggestions, I shall have a closer inspection this evening and report back!

[Owmuchonomy]

The screws you describe are indeed adjustment screws for cone error and what a good job they do too.  The hex bolt holding your scope ring to the dovetail is in-between the two black adjusting bolts and countersunk into the housing. Can you not move the scope/dovetail slightly in the mount to avoid the fouling?

[John]

I would remove the protruding bolts when using the scope with the AZ-4. It's not as if cone error will matter when using that mount.

 

[Oortrageous]

Hi all - my my, I'm glad I asked before I got over-enthusiastic with the hacksaw  thanks for educating me, as pointed out above as I shan't need to be correcting for cone error using the AZ4 I shall simply whip the problematic ones out and put them away until I reach the levels of masochism required to purchase an HEQ5 Pro and start trying to image

Thanks again, much appreciated.

[Owmuchonomy]

Just in case you buy an AZ EQ 6 GT like mine you will find the cone error bolts invaluable.  With two scopes on the same mount in Alt/Az mode the bolts are used to finely align the secondary scope with the primary in Azimuth.

[John]

As a non-imager I used to think that cone error was ordering the wrong ice cream at the seaside.

I've learned a lot from this forum !

[kerrylewis]

48 minutes ago, John said:

As a non-imager I used to think that cone error was ordering the wrong ice cream at the seaside.

I've learned a lot from this forum !

I'm the same with 'dithering'. I am a world class ditherer but somehow I don't think it would help me much with imaging!