Rings and cradle for 14 inch Meade SCT

[Percivel]

Put in a post of how my handset failed. Managed to overcome that and then bang! Mount has now given up the ghost. Drives gone sensors failed. So I have bitten the bullet and deforked  the OTA from the mount.

Not an easy task and ended up with a small dent on the tube. Fortunately optics and mechanics are still sound.

So I am now looking at remounting it onto an EQ mount, but despite googling for sometime I cannot for the life of me find a cradle and ring system that I can use. I really do not want to just attach a dovetail as I think that due to the weight it may  flex or even fall off.

Hence why I think cradle and rings are the way forward. Does anyone know a supplier who can help? 

[CraigT82]

Orion optics can provide both cheapish rolled rings and expensive CNC alloy rings.  I use a pair of the rolled rings on my 220mm Fullerscope and they work great. Will need radius blocks to use with a flat dovetail as there is no flat on the rings. IIRC I paid about £55 for the pair, custom sized for my 250mm OTA

Edited July 12, 2021 by CraigT82

[bsdsgl84]

2 hours ago, Percivel said:

Put in a post of how my handset failed. Managed to overcome that and then bang! Mount has now given up the ghost. Drives gone sensors failed. So I have bitten the bullet and deforked  the OTA from the mount.

Not an easy task and ended up with a small dent on the tube. Fortunately optics and mechanics are still sound.

So I am now looking at remounting it onto an EQ mount, but despite googling for sometime I cannot for the life of me find a cradle and ring system that I can use. I really do not want to just attach a dovetail as I think that due to the weight it may  flex or even fall off.

Hence why I think cradle and rings are the way forward. Does anyone know a supplier who can help? 

 

Software Bisque sells rings for your OTA - so do Telescope Support Systems and Parallax Instruments ., 

I actually have Parallax Instruments C-14 SCT rings that I used for a while, but reverted to Losmandy DC-14 Dovetail plates as I wanted a more portable set up that was easier to use with my AP900-GTO. 

I am not aware of anyone other than the late Andy Homeyer that made / sold ring cradle systems for larger OTAs - which is a huge loss.., 

Best.., 

bsdsgl84 

 

[Oldfort]

It's probably a lot cheaper, and easier, to get some thing like this:

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-losmandy-type-d-series/adm-losmandy-dovetail-for-optical-tubes.html

 

There should be mounting holes on the OTA, possibly filled in with grub screws or something similar.