looking for the impossible?

[rowan46]

I have already mentioned my problems wirh not being a driver. I don't always fancy a 6 mile round trip on a cycle with a trailer to observe and quite like my trips to the canal with all my equipment strapped to my back. they are convenient for a start. so I'll try a different tack. I'm looking for a go to mount which will hold a nexstar 5 ota can attatch a bridge camera occasionally without losing tracking or go to accuracy or handle a modded webcam. At present I lug about 40lbs on my back but I can handle 50 safely any ideas as it seems that a cg5 is likely to be too heavy. forgot to mention I want a gem . just recalculated my mileage its actually 9 miles (knew there was a reason i didn't like it) . please suggestions for a luggable mount that can take basic astro images. £450 max

[Nexus 6]

Hi Rowan,

I don't know how you are going to manage that!. You show great determination for your astronomy for wanting to do so. I hope you get the advise you require. Are your skies at home so poor?. I have noticed some people use screens in their gardens to block some of their light pollution. Not worth trying?

Alan

[SiriusB]

Full marks for dedication Rowan!

I also don't own a car but have a large rucksack for occasional trips into the country.

I use an az3 mount for this(nice & light) but the main issue was the length of the tripod legs, not weight for me.

That would be what i'd be looking at first.

Does it have to be goto? I'd be tempted to steer clear of eq mounts as you've got assembly/disassembly time on top of your travel time.

Maybe one of the az goto mounts would do the trick?

My idea of a travel scope is something thats up & running in minutes.

I think you may quickly tire of setting an eq up away from home every time, unless you're planning all nighters.

Just my thoughts, for what its worth.

Weights of the eq5 i think are 7kg for the head, 5kg counterweight plus tripod ? kg + scope weight & accessories & a large flask!!...doable if you can fit it all in, but hardly pleasant i'd say.

[rowan46]

I like the go to of the nexstar 5 it is as you say easy to set up. the ota is great but if i put a camera on the back the tracking goes to pot and the go to suffers. Its true that at the moment I can be assembled and aligned in about 10 mins but I would love to be able to take a simple photo. I know I won't get a professional looking photo but something to impress the friend s would be good.

[rowan46]

does anyone know how much a neq3 weighs?

[SiriusB]

How about trying to tweak the balance point on your existing setup with camera , if you run out of travel on the dovetail bar you might be able to attach a small weight to the front end to balance things up?

[rowan46]

the nexstar 5 doesnt have a dovetail bar its attached directly to the mount

[Demonperformer]

Sorry to appear to contradict you, Rowan, but looking at the picture on FLO, the nexstar 5 has the same bar as the 6, which stretches the entire length of the scope. the knob in the sort of 7 o'clock position is the one that allows the bar to slide through the mount - slack it off and slide the scope. Unless I am being completely stupid and missing something obvious?

[pvaz]

It's not cheap but you could get something like this:

Astrotrac - Astrotrac Holiday Special Deal

I seen excelent widefield photos in the past taken with one of those.

[John]

Sorry to appear to contradict you, Rowan, but looking at the picture on FLO, the nexstar 5 has the same bar as the 6, which stretches the entire length of the scope. the knob in the sort of 7 o'clock position is the one that allows the bar to slide through the mount - slack it off and slide the scope. Unless I am being completely stupid and missing something obvious?

The 1st generation Nexstar 5's were actually connected directly to the mount - I used to have one

This is what mine looked like:

http://www.skyimager.com/images/Scope008.jpg

[ollypenrice]

As a passionate cyclist and astronomer I don't think you can do telescopic deep sky imaging this way. It pains me to say it. I would, though, think about an astrotrac and camera setup but be aware that you will need bulb setting as a possibility. You need long exposures.

A quite different track; could you not cycle much further to somewhere where you could leave your gear? Campsite, farm, friend or relative in a dark area? Right now I house a mount for a guy who comes from time to time to use it. He does have a car but big imaging gear is big, so that is what he does. Leaves some of it with me.

Bon courage!

Olly

[glowjet]

Hi Rowan, I do admire your determination, I know this may sound silly but if you want to walk, have you considered a ladies shopping trolley, my Wife has one of those vertical ones on four wheels, its waterproof, roomy and can carry quite a heavy load, you might look a bit odd pushing the thing, but its the end result that counts, on the same track there is also fisherman's trolleys to consider, which you pull behind you.

John.

[rowan46]

my trailer has an extra wheel which turns it into one of those strollers but getting it down to the towpath is a pain in the .... I guess Ill try and look for an alternative route to the towpath. I would like to thank all those who contributed. oh by the way any ideas on how to attatch a nexstar 5 ota to a gem what sort of bracket will I need

[John]

... oh by the way any ideas on how to attatch a nexstar 5 ota to a gem what sort of bracket will I need

You will need to fit a vixen / skwatcher compatible dovetail bar to the scope - like this one has:

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/Bilder/shop/Celestron/Schmidt_Cassegrain/C5/c5xlsota-orange.jpg

[rowan46]

unfortunately its one of these

[John]

You can detach those from their mount then add the dovetail bar so that the tube assembly will fit onto any mount which takes vixen / skywatcher dovetail bars.

I found this website a mine of information when I owned one:

http://www.nexstarsite.com/index.html

I think there is something on removing the scope from the mount under the "odds and ends" section.

[Demonperformer]

Apologies for my misunderstanding and incorrect info

[rowan46]

thanks john removing the scope isnt the problem I cant seem to find anybody who has brackets to fit. or the procedure for modifying the scope to take them. there is something called rays brackets in america but the cost of importing them is a lot there doesnt seem to be a european version. I suppose i could try tube rings

[rowan46]

As to apologies for the misinfo no problems this model nexstar is 20 years old I don't imagine there are many of this type left in the world if it wasn't for the fact they don't make the ota anymore I would probably save for a new one but a new 5 is more than i want to pay for a mount with limitations apparently the 5se tracks better but at £750 its too much for me

[John]

Apologies for my misunderstanding and incorrect info

No problem mate - there have been quite a few versions of the Nexstar 5

[rowan46]

I have just discovered that its possible to buy the mount and tripod for the nexstar 5 seperately so I think that what I'll do apparently the new mount is much better at tracking which will be enough for my feeble atempts at imaging