Telescope balance question

[Seoras]

Hello everyone, I’m sorry if this is a stupid question but I’m not sure if I’m doing things right. I bought an Astro Essentials dew shield along with a Celestron Dew Ring for my Nexstar 8SE and I’m very happy with both. Thing is, my scope became nose heavy with both fitted so I slid it back on the dovetail bar to compensate and that was fine. Then I thought I’d have a go at taking a couple of photos with my second hand Nikon and the T ring I bought for it; yes, you guessed it, the scope was now tail heavy. Will I have to slide the OTA back and forward every time I fit and remove the camera or am I doing something wrong?

P.S. I know my kit isn’t exactly great for astrophotography but it’s all I can afford atm 😩

[Astronomist]

you could add a counterweight at the focuser end of the scope that you remove when you attach the camera, something along the lines of this, although the price is a little steep IMHO

clear skies,

Harry

Edited December 10, 2022 by Astronomist

[SmokeyJoe]

Hello Seoras welcome to the board.  Firstly the best kit fot astrophotography is what you have, I use a second hand cannon 450D, that I bought for 80 quid and get great enjoyment from it. 

Secondly yep I'm afraid you will have to rebalance your kit every time you add or remove equipment.  I find the best thing to do is to balance it in daylight and mark the positions with tape or a permanent marker then you don't have to spend precious time at night finding the balance points.

Have fun 

[Cosmic Geoff]

You don't have to balance the C8 on the SE mount at all.  It is an alt-azimuth mount and does not require balancing, unless you add so much weight that the altitude clutch starts slipping.  Balancing is only really an issue on equatorial mounts, where the scope is liaible to start swinging as soon as you release a clutch if not properly balanced.

My C8 is pushed forward as far as it will go in the clamp of its SE mount to maximise the clearance when aimed near the zenith.

[Seoras]

I’ll have a tinker with it tomorrow bearing in mind all your comments, thanks for helping me out 👍

[Craney]

Hi there,

I had the same problem with my C8 SCT. 

Taking a OSC image of the Moon with my Canon 60D, then  a planetary shot of Jupiter with a Barlow, ADC and smaller ZWO 224....... then to round the evening off a longer set with a cooled mono camera, 0.6x reducer and filter wheel.   All requiring little tweeks to maintain balance.

I found this a good solution if you have any length of Vixen style dovetail left on either side of the scope / mount clamp.  

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/counterweights/baader-dovetail-bar-levelling-counterweight.html

Very quick to slide away or toward the scope and you can add successive weights if one if not enough. 

  Saves unclamping the whole rig....which can end badly if you are not paying attention.

It might help.

Cheers.

Sean

 

[SmokeyJoe]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

.  It is an alt-azimuth mount and does not require balancing,

Sorry I assumed we were talking about an EQ mount.  Ignore my comments.