Mounting ideas

[saturn]

Hi

Last year i built myself a roll off observatory, and i have a F4 12" Newtonian German equatorial mounted.

I want to mount a Celestron 6" sct on the side, on the tube rings. The sct has a dovetail bar but i am willing to mount it differently.

Has anyone done this or have any idea? Also pics would be useful.

Cheers Matt

[Robd]

Matt,

If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, then I think that you will not be able to do it.

With the Newt mounted centrally in the GEM and the SCT on one side then you will not balance the rig. You will be OK if you mount the SCT on top of the Newt.

This will throw more outbound weight on the mount and you will have to push the weights further down the balance shaft and possibly add more weight.

The way to achieve side by side mounts is with a with side by side mount such as http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ambermile/accessories.htm scroll down to DTM3.

Your biggest problem then will be the total weight of scopes + accessories cameras etc. The limit here will of course depend on the GEM mount that you have, I would guess that an HEQ5 may just be OK, you would have to check the limit for your mount against the weight of the scopes et.

Hope that that helps a bit.

Rob

[saturn]

Hi rob

Thanks for your comments.

Im not worried about weight - I have a becon hill mount - I did have a lot of problems with this mount but now that ive sorted out it is very sturdy.

I thought that mounting them side by side would be difficult to balance.

What do you think?

Cheers Matt

scope 1.bmp

[Robd]

Matt,

balancing is not too bad - each scope can be adjusted on the dual mount bar and then the mount bar in the Gem. Then adjust the weights to balance the whole thing.

The picture below shows my rig, a 6" and 4.5" refractor which is well balanced, although I had to put an extra weight on the balance bar.

Mounting the SCT on top of the Newt will push the centre of gravity of the scopes further out and will then require more counterbalance weight. However it is probably easier to balance the scopes as you only need to adjust in one direction.

Rob

[saturn]

Hi Rob

Nice set up.

I thought i would have a problem doing it that way. I see what you mean.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers Matt

[Milamber]

Much as I hate to say it, the Ambermile DTM3 will not be up to carrying the 12" Newtonian - may I suggest you look at the M3 system from AstroDevelopments instead? Does the same thing but for larger scopes.

Arthur - with the Ambermile hat on just a little bit