Could I use my SW 130p heritage for deepsky?

[JokubasJar]

Alright so I am very much a planetary guy and know little about deepsky. I have an 8 inch dob with an eq platform, I use this setup for planets. Before I bought my 8 inch, I had and still have a 130p heritage table top dobsonian. I know that people usually say against using reflectors for dso but I am not really interested in buying another scope. The ota itselt has a vixen dovetail so I could attach it to any mount. The ota is fairly light too, 2.5 kg. of course there is another problem, the focuser, it is a very very crappy helical focuser, I wouldn’t even call it that, it’s more like a big screw. Obviously it is not suitable for imaging, but perhaps I could replace it with a better helical focuser? I am looking at a zwo one that looks pretty high quality to me. I already have a dslr, a Nikon d60. I am not sure about which mount to buy so If yall could help me with that it would be nice. I plan on doing off axis guiding. Is there anything wrong with this?

[happy-kat]

Hi, there are two members using this OTA for imaging, as the trusses don't have to be fully extended it can reach focus with a camera. The focuser can be made more stable with ptfe plumbing tape and you would need to make a light shroud, it's all here it you were thinking to use what you already have. 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/?do=findComment&comment=4185739

Edit: I didn't twig you didn't have a mount

Edited August 10, 2022 by happy-kat

[tomato]

If you don’t have a robust focuser I wouldn’t recommend doing off axis guiding as this is more kit to put on the focuser. A small guidescope will be easier to set up and costs about the same as the Off Axis unit, both methods require a guide camera.

[JokubasJar]

4 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Hi, there are two members using this OTA for imaging, as the trusses don't have to be fully extended it can reach focus with a camera. The focuser can be made more stable with ptfe plumbing tape and you would need to make a light shroud, it's all here it you were thinking to use what you already have. 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/?do=findComment&comment=4185739

Edit: I didn't twig you didn't have a mount

Idk, I have a good feeling about the zwo focuser, I could just get a m42 1.25” nosepiece and just get the focuser on the scope, no diy. What about the mount? I’ve been thinking about the Star Adventurer pro, it has a 5kg capacity, I think ota+focuser+nikon+guidescope shouldn’t exceed 5kg.

[happy-kat]

the heritage 130p would be like a sail I would think on the SA, even if within payload my heritage 130p OTA weighs more like 3.4Kg from memory

[JokubasJar]

2 hours ago, happy-kat said:

the heritage 130p would be like a sail I would think on the SA, even if within payload my heritage 130p OTA weighs more like 3.4Kg from memory

I checked and its 2.5, the area I will mostly be imaging in doesn’t have much wind. I have a question, do you know what kind of thread the crappy focuser is? My original plan was just to get a 1.25” nosepiece to m42 and attach the focuser that way, but thats unnecessary weight. I wonder if I could just screw the focuser in with an adapter? Another option would be to make my own adapter, hack off a bit of whatever that thread is and ask a buddy to weld it to a male m42 ring. I would much prefer to just buy an adapter though.

Edited August 10, 2022 by JokubasJar