Equipment Mods

[DemonicOmelette]

Just curious as to what kind of mods you guys have done, or recommend doing to your scopes.

For example, I've put Velcro on all the legs of my scope, and little velcro bits on both caps of all my EP's, so that I can stick the caps to the legs when I'm using them. I've also put two strips of velcro on the back of my Motor control box thingy, so I can stick that to the legs! Then I got carried away and stuck velcro to a pen, my flashlight, my planisphere, and anything else I could possibly need for a night out!

-eli

[PhillyDee]

Lol! I have a mate that has velcro everywhere. Dashboard, mobile, tape measures, theres velcro dots all over.

[Dave]

Yep! I've done a similar thing too.

[schoash]

I am actually thinking about a diy goto. But I am still in planning phase for attaching the motors to the bresser mount

[philsail1]

Yes, "Velcro" is a great idea - but you can overdo it!

I did.

Went out one cold night with a wooly jumper on, fell against the mount and ended up dragging the whole set up around the garden trying to shake it off!!

That taught me a lesson I can tell you!

Best wishes,

philsail1

[jgs001]

The velcro idea is great, and I may have to invest in a bit... sorry Phil, that made me chuckle...

A good one if you have a sloppy drawtube, the view shifts up and down as you adjust focus, and you have no way to adjust it, is to use teflon mouse tape. You run several strips along the outside of the drawtube, it fills in the gaps nicely, and no more view shift. Works a treat too.

[m.tweedy]

just modded my lxd55 mount with a "Warps" drive belt and hypertuned it.

tried it out the other night indoors-thought I had broken it because there was no noise. Will try it out properly at Kielder on the 26th

few pictures attached

[m.tweedy]

few more attachments to show extent of mod

[Reggie]

I made a wooden wedge for nexstar 6SE and I also made an electronic focuser for my 6SE too, I've also modded my spc900nc webcam for long exposure and built myself a variable dew heater controller.

My latest project is an auto-sensing dew system that measures ambient and scope temps and adjusts the heat accordingly, been a little short on time so might throw it all up on SGL and see if someone wants to add to it or advise me a bit further, if anyone is interested PM me, all software is freeware under whatever license(gpl I think) and the design for the heat sensors is also free.

The parts for the unit costs around about £30 including main controller board, sensors and heater, I have already written the code for the unit to run stand alone with preset temperature on/off margins. It can also be connected to a PC which I have already written the software for.

With a simple gui and graph showing temps of ambient and scope and state of the heater with mouse or keypresses altering the state of the heater. I aim to allow the user to set upper and lower temperature triggers and the main board should be able to take at least 3 scopes + the ambient sensor.

With it being modular adding extra sensors + heaters is trivial along with cost The beauty of the board that I am using is that it can be used for other astro stuff, I am looking to making it control my electronic focuser as well as my auto-sensing dew heater

[DemonicOmelette]

blumming hell, and I thought I was being quite clever with a bit of velcro tape!

Has anyone come up with a smart way to "twist" a reflector without it sliding down through it's holder ring things? I mean twist so the EP is at a more comfortable angle, the whole lot slides down, especially when I'm viewing at a steep angle... I've already marked the tube where the balance point is with a marker, but was hoping someone had a better solution?

-eli

[jgs001]

I read somewhere someone had used those rings for embroidery... Hook them around the tube and clamp them tight either side of the tube rings, then the OTA can't slide in the tube rings when you loosen them. I've not used a reflector, so not hit this issue yet.

[DemonicOmelette]

Ooh, embroidery tubes! That is actually a very, very good idea.... I will try to track some down....

[Astro_Baby]

What your talking about is rotating tuibe rings. There are a couple of stateside companies who make them BUT they are scary expensive.

What you can do is the old needlework hoop triuck of having a hoop round the tube in front of the first tube ring. Then you leave the tube wings loose(ish) and the needlework hoop stops the scope falling out.

Theres a slighlt more elegant way of doing it which is to use a long strip of tube flex, put some soft rubber tubing around it and use that instead of the needelework hoop. It looks a little neater.

If I ever get round to it I have an even more elegant idea which would be cheap to make.

Mods to my scopes - all a bit deluxe I am afraid because I am such a fussy little cow.

Moonlite Focuser - best thing I have ever owned astronomically speaking

Baader Sky-Surfer V - red dot finder

Flocking - done well makes the scope look classy - mine just looks ok (its like fuzzy felt for the inside of the scope to cut down stray light and refelections ).

HEQ5 modded up with Astro-Developments bolts and the mount stripped, greased and retuned to make it a bit smoother.

[jgs001]

What's the Astro Development bolts ? Are they replacements bolts for the Altitude adjusters ?

[Astro_Baby]

Yes JGS - the alt-az bolts

[PhillyDee]

Im currently making a dew heater. Done the first controller, but managed to fry a capacitor (Wrong jumper wire position ). Bang, Smoke and fluffy cap juice all over my circuit. Replaced the cap and rewired. Looks good on a bulb. Now I have to make some heater tapes. All my mods will be on my website in my sig. Anyone who wants to can 'exhibit' their mods on my website. Write some how-tos and give your fellow astronomy nuts a hand

[Rusty Strings]

My scope mods include:

Flocking the tube, Moonlite focuser, dob mount to enable fast set up, oh and velcro on the eq mount legs to stick things to

John

[jgs001]

Yes JGS - the alt-az bolts

Thanks, more to add to the shopping list

[gliderpilot]

My atm projects are:

right angled finder using broken bino 50mm lens, the diagonal from a lidl refractor plumbing parts and some carpentry.

Shortening the tube of a 102mm Skywatcher ED so that I can reach prime focus with a binoviewer and still reach focus with an eyepiece - previously I had to use a barlow lens to reach focus with a binoviewer thereby reducing size of the field of view.

Soldering a 12V-5V DC-DC converter so that I can run my EQ-5 mount on a 12V lead acid gel battery instead of those C battery packs.

Adhered black flocking paper to the insider of the Skywatcher refractor focuser and dew shield to cut down on stray light.

I am designing a transportable pier mount with trolley wheels and built in storage racks and draws so that I can get rid of the EQ-5 aluminium tripod legs. Then when I set up I can wheel the mount out of the shed and be observing with all the kit already with the scope - no need to fetch and carry all the odds and sods.

Finally, I am rebuilding an 8.5" newt into a lightweight truss tube design but this has been on and off for a while now! I am really enjoying the smaller skywatcher scope due to its image quality and ease of use.

Having just read the above, I am off to get an embroidery hoop to stop the scope sliding when it is rotated. Shows how good the forum is for sharing ideas.

Mark

[Psychobilly]

To avoid doing a "phil" stick the loop half of the velcro to the scope/tripod and the hook half to the Accessories....

That way you'll walk around with the bits and bobbs stuck to your wooly jumper rather than the mount

Billy...

[m.tweedy]

Has anyone come up with a smart way to "twist" a reflector without it sliding down through it's holder ring things? I mean twist so the EP is at a more comfortable angle,

Have you considered a crayford focusser as the WO one I have can be rotated 360 degrees which would solve the problem without having to move the scope and potentially lose polar alignment.

[PhillyDee]

Has anyone come up with a smart way to "twist" a reflector without it sliding down through it's holder ring things? I mean twist so the EP is at a more comfortable angle,

Have you considered a crayford focusser as the WO one I have can be rotated 360 degrees which would solve the problem without having to move the scope and potentially lose polar alignment.

See post #13.

Also, you can use rubber hose, and jubilee clips. When I bought my scope second hand it had some on, but I took them off.

[ZOG]

A cheap and nasty way of stopping the tube slipping when rotating it is to use a long zip tie in front of the first tube ring.

[jgs001]

I'm working on a safety harness hook up thingy for my camera to prevent an unnatural end if it should slip out.

[Psychobilly]

I'm working on a safety harness hook up thingy for my camera to prevent an unnatural end if it should slip out.

Camera strap through the guide rings and looped over one of the adjustment bolts does it for me...

Did drop the D200 and 18-70 ED off the piggy back mount last here though when the QR plate "popped" so I am extra carefull since then...

Getting back to velcro you can make usefull "straps" by sticking it back to back - but either the stick and stick or stick and sew varieties to do it - they sell it like that for cable tidy's

Billy..