Mounting a solar telescope onto cpc800 advice please

[Justi]

Hello,

I was wondering if it is possible and if so does anyone know what I would need to mount my Solar telescope onto a Celestron cpc 800?

the Solar telescope is a Skywatcher 500x102mm with Coranado 60mm front filter and a 15mm blocking filter. It weighs about 2kg 

Any advice on what is needed to make this happen would be amazing please, I have not purchased the cpc800 yet as hoping to get advice on it first.

[RT65CB-SWL]

What mount is the CPC800 attached on ?
If it is the fork mount, then I would think some tube rings and a dovetail bar. Someone with more expertise and experience, (and better 'qualified' than me!), will advise and how to go about/do it, etc.

When I had my Vixen GP, I used to mount my TeleVue Ranger on a dual-mounting/side-by-side bar [images below] shown with my 're-modded' ETX105...

...and that was at its maximum payload capacity/limit.

I now use either a Tele-Optic Giro GR-DX [image below] or AOK-AYO alt-az mount.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Philip R

[Justi]

3 minutes ago, Philip R said:

What mount is the CPC800 attached on ?
If it is the fork mount, then I would think some tube rings and a dovetail bar. Someone with more expertise and experience, (and better 'qualified' than me!), will advise and how to go about/do it, etc.

When I had my Vixen GP, I used to mount my TeleVue Ranger on a dual-mounting/side-by-side bar [images below] shown with my 're-modded' ETX105...

...and that was at its maximum payload capacity/limit.

I now use either a Tele-Optic Giro GR-DX [image below] or AOK-AYO alt-az mount.

Thank you for the reply, it is the Celestron dual fork mount it is on. 

That's a lovely looking setup you have there! 

[Cosmic Geoff]

You would need a second dovetail bar and some tube rings. I think you are under-estimating the weight of the 500x102mm (I have one). 

If I were you, I would provide the solar scope with its own mount.  A CPC800 is heavy - I have one and it takes me half an hour to heave it out of its storage, attach the fragile bits and get it ready for observing.  If you give the solar scope its own mount you could deploy it far quicker.

If you carry out your scheme, be sure not to uncap the CPC800 OTA or its finder while solar observing, otherwise you will melt something.

[Peter Drew]

Mounting the solar telescope on top of a cpc800 by any means is going to significantly unbalance the OTA, adding this, plus rebalancing counterweight is going to compromise an already heavy standard unit.  The solar telescope would be much more convenient mounted independently, if the original idea was in order to use the drive function of the 800 its worth mentioning that magnifications for solar observation are generally not so high and an alt-az mount with manual drives is quite adequate.    🙂

[Carbon Brush]

Adding to the comments by @Peter Drew

My viewing patterns are often look for 5 mins, go away, come back later.
There there is the clear - cloud - clear - cloud days of UK skies to contend with.
This made me go for a Solarquest mount.

The Solarquest will easily handle the scope weight you are thinking of.
Just plant on the garden, sort of level, pointing somewhere left of the sun. Accuracy not required.
Power up and go back indoors to collect the scope.
By the time you return the mount will problably have sorted itself - photodiodes + GPS to work out where to point.
Hang the scope onto the mount and away you go.
If clouds appear later, the mount just keeps tracking.
It runs for days on 8-AA cells inside the mount. Or you can use an external 12V supply.

I use either a Lunt LS60 or Bresser '102 with Herschel prism.
Provided you sensibly balance the mount, all is OK.

No regrets about buying a mount to do one job only. It is so quick to set up and use.

HTH, David.

 

 

[Justi]

On 18/09/2022 at 14:30, Carbon Brush said:

Adding to the comments by @Peter Drew

My viewing patterns are often look for 5 mins, go away, come back later.
There there is the clear - cloud - clear - cloud days of UK skies to contend with.
This made me go for a Solarquest mount.

The Solarquest will easily handle the scope weight you are thinking of.
Just plant on the garden, sort of level, pointing somewhere left of the sun. Accuracy not required.
Power up and go back indoors to collect the scope.
By the time you return the mount will problably have sorted itself - photodiodes + GPS to work out where to point.
Hang the scope onto the mount and away you go.
If clouds appear later, the mount just keeps tracking.
It runs for days on 8-AA cells inside the mount. Or you can use an external 12V supply.

I use either a Lunt LS60 or Bresser '102 with Herschel prism.
Provided you sensibly balance the mount, all is OK.

No regrets about buying a mount to do one job only. It is so quick to set up and use.

HTH, David.

 

 

I've got the star adventure for quick setups. And have considered the az gti as another small option too. But often that tripod is in the car. 

I have the celestron 4se but am wanting to upgrade this to ideally the 8se so can just switch out the telescopes but been waiting 3 years to see a used one here in Finland with no luck. But a cpc800 has appeared. 

Which ideally would like to remove the telescope and just add my Solar Telescope to it for the Summer months but I don't think that is possible?

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

1 hour ago, Justi said:

I've got the star adventure for quick setups. And have considered the az gti as another small option too. But often that tripod is in the car. 

I have the celestron 4se but am wanting to upgrade this to ideally the 8se so can just switch out the telescopes but been waiting 3 years to see a used one here in Finland with no luck. But a cpc800 has appeared. 

Which ideally would like to remove the telescope and just add my Solar Telescope to it for the Summer months but I don't think that is possible?

 

Removing the OTA from a CPC800 is not something you want to do every day.   If you want an 8" SCT, the CPC800 is a better mounted scope than the C8 SE (which has the same OTA) but the outfit is much heavier. 

I still think you should get a separate mount for your solar scope.  Why not use the mount of the C4 SE? It should take the weight and you can have the scopes on and off the mount in seconds.  I have had a 102mm f5 Startravel on my SLT mount.