Vertical balancing an EdgeHD 8" on EQ mount

[souls33k3r]

Hi All,

The other night i thought i would bring out my EdgeHD 8" out of season retirement and go for a nice galaxy.

So i mounted my (in order) reducer, t-adapter, FW and my camera at the back. Mounted the pegasus hub at the top of the scope and the first thing i did was to try and balance this scope in vertical. Now this was a challenge. I didn't want to waste any of my clear skies and imaging time so reverted back to my short refractor.

Question is, how critical is it to balance the SCT on dec when pointed vertical (assuming it is VERY) and secondly what have others done in order to balance their SCTs? because unlike refractors, you can not rotate the OTA so basically a bit stuck. Now i'm assuming people use counter weights but i shall leave that discussion for the thread.

Any pretty pictures of your SCT imaging sct setups?

from memory, i believe @PhotoGav has the exact same scope that i do so would most certainly love to hear from you mate. 

Many thanks in advance.

[LightBucket]

Hi,

I am not sure about this, I would have just balanced front to back horizontally and not vertically....but maybe I would be wrong, basically the same as any other scope just the two axis, and away you go...

the only time I do mine on the vertical axis is when using a dual mount bar, (with scope each side) then there are three axis to check..

[souls33k3r]

1 hour ago, LightBucket said:

Hi,

I am not sure about this, I would have just balanced front to back horizontally and not vertically....but maybe I would be wrong, basically the same as any other scope just the two axis, and away you go...

the only time I do mine on the vertical axis is when using a dual mount bar, (with scope each side) then there are three axis to check..

Cheers mate, maybe it is not required or maybe it is essential i don't know hence the reason why i've asked because it seems just impossible to balance the SCT in vertical.

I'd certainly love to hear back from others what they have been doing in this regard.

[PhotoGav]

I only balance my EdgeHD in horizontal Dec and in RA, I don’t balance it vertically as it is difficult, if not impossible! I am happy with results, so don’t think it is necessary to do the vertical. 

[souls33k3r]

1 minute ago, PhotoGav said:

I only balance my EdgeHD in horizontal Dec and in RA, I don’t balance it vertically as it is difficult, if not impossible! I am happy with results, so don’t think it is necessary to do the vertical. 

Cheers mate. Much appreciated you took time to reply because you're the only other EdgeHD 8" person I know of here. That's exactly what I've been doing in the past but started to get paranoid with my refractor when I noticed it to be doing crazy things with regards to guiding in vertical position. 

[PhotoGav]

52 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Cheers mate. Much appreciated you took time to reply because you're the only other EdgeHD 8" person I know of here. That's exactly what I've been doing in the past but started to get paranoid with my refractor when I noticed it to be doing crazy things with regards to guiding in vertical position. 

My pleasure, though there is very little guarantee that I am right! To be fair, the weight of the optical chain is length ways really, I don't have much sticking out from the scope. I hadn't really considered it might even be necessary. You've got me wondering now!!!

[souls33k3r]

7 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

My pleasure, though there is very little guarantee that I am right! To be fair, the weight of the optical chain is length ways really, I don't have much sticking out from the scope. I hadn't really considered it might even be necessary. You've got me wondering now!!!

Oops, sowwies mate  was never my intention. I would be surprised to find out how your scope does behave with everything on in vertical position.

Ever tried to image anything closer to zenith and by any chance do you remember how your guiding was?

[PhotoGav]

4 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Oops, sowwies mate  was never my intention. I would be surprised to find out how your scope does behave with everything on in vertical position.

Ever tried to image anything closer to zenith and by any chance do you remember how your guiding was?

no worries!

None of my scopes are that good near the zenith, though I get perfectly acceptable results, just not as good guiding as away from the zenith. Perhaps it is the vertical balance that is to blame?

[souls33k3r]

3 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

no worries!

None of my scopes are that good near the zenith, though I get perfectly acceptable results, just not as good guiding as away from the zenith. Perhaps it is the vertical balance that is to blame?

indeed it is to blame 

[LightBucket]

A bit of bias one way or the other is always a bit better anyway, so what do you have sticking out from the sides of your scope to need to balance that way...have you a picture of your set up..?