Celestron CPC 1100hd deluxe fork mount modification

[Trevor PC]

Hi

From a wet North West England in the UK.

At my Astronomy club a member of the public had gifted the club a large amount of equipment at no cost, which the club put up for raffle, with the Celestron CPC 1100hd deluxe coming complete with tripod, hand control, a celestron wedge, and Ballance kit all in very good condition, but without the telescope.

The raffle started, and people took various items, with no one wanting the Celestron and accessories. My name was drawn out 6th and I said I would take it, which drew a lot of laughter, with comments on "what are you going to do with that".

I could not see it being sent back to the person who donated  it as this would be ungrateful.

At present I have not got the funds to buy a second hand scope to fit the mount, and if I did would be trouble with my wife.

The individual who donated the items wanted them to be used, and as I took it, I  feel duty bound to do this, so started to think how to use  it with an existing short refractor.

I then started to search for someone who had done this type and came across some individuals who had attempted this, but did not respond to mails sent.

So why do modify the mount I have a ioptron cem25p and an HEQ 5 pro both capable of holding the scope I plan to use?  As I mentioned the individual who gifted the items wanted them used, and I want to be able to go back and show the individual's generosity was not for nothing, and lastly take the modified  item  back to my astronomy club to prove what can be done.

So if any members have undertaken this type of modification, I would really appreciate if you could spare sum time to drop me a line to explain your modification process along with how successful the modification was.

As always many thanks in anticipation of a response 

Trevor

Edited May 30 by Cornelius Varley
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[Cosmic Geoff]

I think the most practical course would be to approach a dealer in used astro gear (e.g. ENS Optical) and sell the mount or swap it for something more immediately useful.  It looks like at some point somebody de-forked the C11 and put it on a different mount.   Other than a C11 there are not many telescopes that positively require a very heavy and solid fork mount (with or without wedge). 

[Trevor PC]

Hello Geoff

As always many thanks for your response.

 As the individual who donated the items only wish was they were put to good use I  would not feel comfortable in moving them on, and breaking that promise.

So will work out how best to modify the fork assembly to take a short length refractor, with some ideas of using a U shaped bracelet fixed between the fork arms.

As always any input is much appreciated.

Trevor 

 

[bosun21]

You could I suppose fit a thin flat bridging plate between the forks and fit a vixen saddle to the centre of it. This will at least allow you to attach a smaller telescope to the saddle and still retain all the functions and benefits of a driven/tracking mount. Good luck.

[Cosmic Geoff]

You could use the CPC mount for a 10" or 11" Newtonian if most of the weight is at the back end.  Asides from the interfacing hardware, the main issue would be the height of the eyepiece at zenith (not a problem with a C11).

[Trevor PC]

Hello bosun21

As always many thanks for responding.

Yes the plan is to do exactly as you mention, I need to find the exact dimensions of the diameter of the 1100hd deluxe that the arms bolt to.

Once that dimension is known I can get either a plastic or aluminium material turned to exactly fit inside the arms before putting in the bolt holes and then attach a U shaped bracket that an ADM dual vixen/losmandy saddle can be fitted to. 

That's the plan, and then mount a Pentax 100 sduf ii or WO Zenithstar 80 ii

As always any views, advice is greatly appreciated.

Trevor