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Guidescope mounting

DougM43

By DougM43
in Getting Started With Imaging

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DougM43

DougM43

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Ok guys just a quick question please,

I have ordered a zwo finder guider from FLO as I will be using a zwo camera for guiding, it comes supplied with a vixen type dovetail.

What I am unsure about is how to mount it to the telescope? I would like if possible to keep the original scope finder on the scope,

do I need to buy anything else to mount the  guidescope?

the scope is a skywatchers ed80 pro

many thanks, Doug.

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DougM43

DougM43

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1 hour ago, m.tweedy said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D2LEHIU?tag=amz-mkt-chr-uk-21&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-org00-win10-other-nomod-uk000-pcomp-feature-scomp-wm-4-wl-ddt0_sce0_prc0_aapi0&ref=bit_scomp_sav0

should do the trick

 

Thank you Michael, I thought I'd need something, that looks a nifty solution 

cheers, Doug. 

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DougM43

DougM43

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Mhmm good point, I only use the finder for alignment after that it's redundant, so would the guidescope fit directly into the shoe on the ed80 with what's supplied? 

I could well be wrong but even if it did  looking at it it looks like there's a possibility of the guide camera and the imaging camera being very close to each other.

i've ordered the dual finder bracket suggested by Michael and I've found in my box of odds n ends a dovetail bar which fits nicely on top of the ed80s scope rings so one way or another I think I'll be able to come up with something usable.

many thanks, Doug

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I'd be inclined just to make an alloy plate or strip running from the top of the rear tube rings to the top of the front tube rings. Then drill it and bolt the little dovetail on the guidescope to that. This will be stiffer than the twin finder mounting bracket and there's no guarantee that the dovetail would fit it anyway. 

Olly

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DougM43

DougM43

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1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I'd be inclined just to make an alloy plate or strip running from the top of the rear tube rings to the top of the front tube rings. Then drill it and bolt the little dovetail on the guidescope to that. This will be stiffer than the twin finder mounting bracket and there's no guarantee that the dovetail would fit it anyway. 

Olly

Cheers Olly,

That's the thing, it's knowing what fits and what doesn't (hence the reason for the question) I must have looked at a hundred different pictures of telescopes with guidescopes attached and there seems to be almost as many different mounting solutions as pictures, the underlying theme seems to be however it's done it has to be rock solid. With what I already have and what I've bought I'm fairly confident a good way can be found.

Doug 

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DougM43

DougM43

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2 hours ago, spillage said:

If you are guiding using phd then ditch the finder scope. You can use APT to control your camera, dither the mount and platesolve meaning alignment is no longer needed.

 

I will be using phd, but dithering and platesolving are things for the future, I need to learn how to use the guidescope first and so far I'm not even sure exactly how I'm attaching it to the scope lol.

ive purchased backyard eos for camera control, I'd not herd of APT before, it looks a good programme, thanks.

Doug

 

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spillage

spillage

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Dithering and platesolving are very easy and will really save you a heap of trouble with you imaging. If you feel like giving APT a go in the future give me a shout and I can help you out with the settings. I am sure there are plenty of others here who use backyard that can help you there.

Dithering will enable you to ditch dark files which saves loads of time as these need to be the same exposure time and temp. If you are doing 5min exposures then you will end up wasting an hour just getting your darks.

Platesolving allows you to use a previous image and moves the mount to put back into the same position. In APT you also it to find new targets. Choose a target from the list and the software moves your scope near to it, takes a photo and works out what way to move to get you bang on target.

It really is very easy and clever and takes out allot of manual work. 

cheers

Spill.

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DougM43

DougM43

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1 hour ago, spillage said:

Dithering and platesolving are very easy and will really save you a heap of trouble with you imaging. If you feel like giving APT a go in the future give me a shout and I can help you out with the settings. I am sure there are plenty of others here who use backyard that can help you there.

Dithering will enable you to ditch dark files which saves loads of time as these need to be the same exposure time and temp. If you are doing 5min exposures then you will end up wasting an hour just getting your darks.

Platesolving allows you to use a previous image and moves the mount to put back into the same position. In APT you also it to find new targets. Choose a target from the list and the software moves your scope near to it, takes a photo and works out what way to move to get you bang on target.

It really is very easy and clever and takes out allot of manual work. 

cheers

Spill.

I think dithering will be my next step after guiding and no doubt sometime soon I will want to return to a previous target to add more data, so platesolving will come, 

from what I've seen so far with APT (which isn't a great deal to be honest) it sounds  like a more complete imaging package, if it makes life easier then I'd be for it, that said I feel as though I'm getting to grips with backyard, perhaps when my backyard subscription is up I'll be more ready for APT,, (you may regret offering to help me out with it)

thanks again, Doug

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DougM43

DougM43

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1 hour ago, scitmon said:

I've just gone for the ST80 guiding bundle from FLO for my 80ED.  Seems to be the go-to solution for most serious 80ed imagers which is good enough for me!

I looked at the ST80 it seems a lot of people use it as a guidescope, the only reason I went with the Zwo guider is that I already have a Zwo asi120mc camera,

it made sense to me to use a guidescope that was matched to my camera.

where in Lancashire are you?

Doug

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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3 hours ago, DougM43 said:

Only for the initial 2 star alignment

Doug

I don't have a finder on our widefield rig. I can sight along the tube rings and be sure that the alignment star (I only need one with the Mesu) will be on the chip. I then centre it with the camera and re-synch. However, with the long focal length rig I use a red dot finder followed by a finderscope to put the alignment star on the chip. The red dot would probably be fine on its own but I have both so I use them.

Olly

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  • 2 weeks later...
DougM43

DougM43

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Ok, just a quick update, the guidescope arrived yesterday so this morning I took a look at mounting it,

in my box of bits n bobs I had a spare dovetail plate that fit the ed80s tube rings and a bolt from an old set of 8 inch rings with the knurled plastic bit for mounting a camera on top of the scope,  so it was just a case of drilling the dovetail to bolt the one supplied with the guidescope and use the knurled bolts to fasten the whole thing down, just to make it a bit more secure I've fitted one of those plastic spacers (used for filling windows) between the two dovetails just so it's not metal bolted to metal.

Its all solid with no movement anywhere so should do the job nicely.

Thanks all, Doug

IMG_0011.JPG

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