Balancing multiple scopes on the same mount

[orionoffelt]

I image at the moment with a SCT I am going to mount small refractor piggyback my question is say I was imaging with the refractor   do I need to add a weight in the Focuser of the SCT with it not having a camera in at the time to maintain balance as I was going to mount two cameras of the same weight for the initial balancing ?

 

Bob

[johninderby]

The ADM counterweight system works well. Had one on my CPC1100.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-counterweight-kits.html

[orionoffelt]

I have one fitted also but what I was thinking is which ever scope I am not imaging with does it need to have weight fitted  while imaging with the other scope to maintain balance.

 

Bob

[brantuk]

If you have the counterweight system on the scope and you remove one of the cameras from a well balanced system - then you need to rebalance it all. I think it may only be a matter of moving the counterweight along the bar an inch or two. If that doesn't work then you could try sliding the frac up or down the dovetail bar. Hth

[ollypenrice]

I'm not sure that an SCT makes a good scope carrier, to be honest. Personally I'd be looking at side by side.

However, since rebalancing would be such a faff what I'd do would be this: find the focal position of the refractor with your camera and then make a dummy of the same weight. That done, you can swap camera for dummy in either direction and always be nicely balanced.

Olly

[Davey-T]

I have this balance system on my wedge / fork mounted SCT it can be rotated to offset balance, it needs bar to mount it on the bottom, I've got a 100mm refractor piggy backed on it and it all works OK guiding via OAG on the SCT and camera swopped between scopes.

Dave

https://www.telescopehouse.com/seperate-weight-set-for-rail-systems.html

[orionoffelt]

Thanks for the helpful reply’s I will take these comments on board. I have two set up’s the other is wide field with a German mount which works fine  but my other observatory has a better view of the sky that is why I went for a TS 65 piggybacked on the wedge mounted SCT without having to do a meridian flip is a bonus the bigger Celestron 11” doesn’t get much use until the Winter month’s so during my Summer break I will start setting up the new scope and balance it all up and be ready for action when the darker nights come along for my latitude it’s normally the middle of August.

 

Bob