100ED rings and mounting plate upgrade path

[ED Splitter]

Hi all,

I am after some advice as not sure if what I want to achieve is a sound idea. Any opinions would be appreciated. 
 

At this time I have a short term aim to move the finder scope from the synta focuser shoe further up the tube. I expect this to involve new rings and plates etc. I have no idea what is required for this and would welcome some recommendations to consider. The primary reason is to improve comfort particularly with any observations at the zenith. At the moment I am using the standard finder that comes with the 100ED which is a 7x50 I think. I have a three way splitter on the 100ED focuser shoe foot that is also carrying a baader sky surfer V. The third slot is empty.

In addition I think it’s relevant to set out a future aim of double stacking a second smaller refractor on top of the 100ED such as a 60mm Takahashi or equivalent, which would also act  as a standalone future travel scope. Whilst at home a second such scope would be used as a very nice wide field viewer/finder scope. Some objects/targets lend themselves better to a wide finder like view, where the finder scope provides a better viewing experience e.g Pleiades. In terms of the standard finder scope I am noting the limitations of its design such as triangular stars and rapid fall off of field curvature from centre to edge. I would at some stage seek to improve this with the above idea. From what I can gather the 100ed is a fine performer in medium to high zoom views but isn’t well suited to wide field views, happy to be corrected here.

I mention this future aspiration as I would want want to avoid abortive purchases. It would be great if any advice for immediate need of shifting the finder mount up the tube were to be be future proofed for my aspirations re double stack.  My initial thoughts are replacement machined rings and a Losmandy base with vixen bar on top but don’t know if this is the right path. 

Some points of note. I am a visual observer only, at present I have no real dew prevention save a cheap band off Amazon and a mobile power bank. If a mount set up could carry a dew controller and power source so much the better. I like things neat and would prefer to avoid cables dangling etc. 

My current mount is a basic eq5 deluxe manual only. I am only a year into owning a telescope and I am enjoying manual observing as it’s helping me to learn the night sky. I have no desire to ever venture into Astro photography. One day it might be nice to have a plate solve auto guide setup, but for now my enthusiasm doesn’t require it.
 

Any advice would be great.   

Many thanks. 

[RobertI]

Personally I would forget the idea of using a 60mm Tak or equivalent as a finder - once you’ve added rings, and diagonal and a quality wide field eyepiece, it will be a really heavy lump to have on the main scope and will make balancing a real pain and make the whole thing unwieldy IMO. I did try something similar in the past and found it too cumbersome. I would go for a right angled finder where your existing finder is (I have this setup and it works really well) and a get a really nice wide field eyepiece for the main scope. You can still buy a Tak 60mm as a standalone travel scope. 🙂 FYI I also have Rigel Quikfinder RDF which I mount near the dew shield, which makes it much easier to look through. HTH.

EDIT: Just did a bit of research and you can get a maximum field of view of 3 degrees from your scope, but you will need to use a 2” eyepiece, something like a 38mm Panaview (at the more budget end). Warning - 2” eyepieces are huge!

Edited December 9, 2022 by RobertI