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Telepod Mount help please!


Helen

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Went mad on e-bay last week and bought a televue Gibraltar mount with the Skysensor digital setting circles. The aim is to use it with my about-to-be-acquired PST(long story, ask Steve who's doing his best for me!) and my Megrez 90. The mount arrives Saturday. So I've got a couple of questions - just to make sure that I can use it when it arrives (on the off chance it isn't hammering with rain on the weekend!)

Does anyone know if I need any other hardware to attach the Megrez to the telepod?

and

Is balance likely to be a problem?

thanks

Helen

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Well, assuming you have rings for the Megrez you *should* be OK... also I'm pretty sure you can use a camera-mount thingie, did the Megrez come with a "foot" for camera-tripod mounting? Balance should be OK - trust me :)

Arthur

PS - get a PP3 battery, when I got my NGC it took a while to figure it out then when I was ready to go the battery went flat on me!

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Thanks Arthur. I hope I don't need rings as I sold the ones I had to John a couple of weeks ago...!! yes, It has an L bracket so I'm hoping that will work. Thanks for the tip on spare batteries. I had that problem with my ETX a couple of times, and the ETX batteries fit in the bottom of the scope so you have to dismantle it all...

Helen

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I'll be interested in the responses you get to this Helen - I'm thinking of going for one of these for my Megrez 90 as well !!.

I've not actually seen a TV Telepod mount but from the pictures in the net I've been assuming that you would simply use the Megrez 90's L bracket to fasten the scope to the "yoke" part of the mount using appropriate size and length bolts. I guess you could address any balance issues (as long as they are not too severe) using the tension adjusters on the mount axis.

If you search Cloudynights you might find a picture of a WO (even if not a Megrez 90) on a Telepod mount.

Lets see what others come up with.

John

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Thought you might like an update (OK, let's be honest, thought I'd quite like to tell you about my new toy!). It was delivered on Saturday. Mounting did prove a little challenging, but not impossible. The mount has 2 holes, the Megrez foot has 3, but the holes are different distances apart! So decided to mount with just one hole. The one to be used to get closest to proper blance was unfortunately the one which resulted in least contact between the foot and the mount, but it seemed to hold OK. I haven't managed to get the friction quite right yet - its nowhere near as smooth as my Giro yet. But it makes up for it in stability, its amazing, I can lean on the tripod on the image doesn't wobble at all (unlike the Giro). I'm going to give it a few more goes and then see if I need to get something to allow me more room for movement to get the balance perfect. (Arthur you may get a PM!)

The Skysensor is dead easy to use. Set up straight away and got me to M35 at first attempt. REALLY pleased with this purchase. Push to is so much easier and quieter than goto..

Thanks for your help.

Helen

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Thanks Arthur. I think there are a couple of UK stockist of this - I'll give them a call to discuss. Otherwise I was wondering if it was possible to attach a dovetail holder to the tripod and then use the WO vixen plate I used to attach the Megrez to the Giro mount. That way I could move the scope easily to achieve perfect balance too? What do you think?

thanks

H

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I might be a bit late contributing to this but I have a similar set-up so it might be useful. I have a Megrez 80 mounted on a Televue Panoramic mount with a Telepod head. As Helen has pointed out, only one of the footprint holes can be attached directly to the Telepod at any one time. When I attempted to do this I discovered that the mount screws were not long enough to ensure a really secure fit. This problem was compounded by the fact that I was attaching a two shiny surfaces together, which resulted in a fair bit of slippage. To solve this problem I used a piece of Velcro in order to provide some grip and found this worked well although, in theory, this made the attachment screw even shorter.

As for the question of balance. Unfortunately, I found this to be less than perfect also. When using 1.25” eyepieces attached to a 1.25” diagonal there wasn’t a problem but upgrading to the heavier 2” eyepieces/2” diagonal meant the tube had to be positioned so far forward that the angled sides of the yoke interfered with focussing. You could still focus but you could not fit your fingers all the way around the focusing wheel.

One of the benefits of these small refractors is the wide field of view they give when partnered with 2” accessories so I think the balance question is quite an important one. When you consider the addition of ccd cameras etc to a typical set-up then it becomes even more critical. I’m not sure of the tube length of the Megrez 90 but it may be long enough so that you don’t experience this problem. Also, I think the latest WO telescopes may have a couple of strips of cork under the footprint to alleviate the slippage.

I did consider the TV balance aid so would be interested in hearing your thoughts if you decide to get one.

Best wishes

Stan

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Thanks Stan. I haven't done anything yet, so good to hear about your experiences too. My mount didn't come with screws, but I had some longer ones done when I needed to attach the Megrez to the WO dovetail bar. Although I was a little worried about just using one hole for attachment it seems pretty solid. I think my mount must be of an older type than the current telepod (its at least second hand so not really sure of its age) as it doesn't have mounting holes for a handle, eyepiece caddy etc. what it does have though is a felt pad on the cradle around the mounting holes and so that helps with getting a good contact.

I've got my first 2 inch eyepiece on the way, so I'm going to test with that and then decide on the balance plate. I'll let you know how it goes.

best wishes

Helen

PS welcome to SGL!!

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I picked up some Televue accessories from "Adorama" when I was in New York in October. Can't believe how helpful they were. One of the parts I needed was a little dovetail plate that cost about 9 quid. They didn't have it in stock but could get it the next day as the truck had already left for the the out of state warehouse. As I was leaving the next day I wouldn't be able to pick it up, so they made a call and said that it would be here at 3.30 pm. Bearing in mind this was 12 noon I was amazed when I went back and it was there. Can't see me getting that kind of service from many shops over here, just brilliant.

The other place that I got the TV8-24 zoom was just as helpful, B&H Photo. Both ship overseas.

Over here I've found Venturescope very good at getting the parts, takes a while and quite pricey though.

Still want to know how that PST performs if we get any sun!

Dave

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