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palerider
member
Reged: 06/19/08
Posts: 70
Loc: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
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I want to piggyback my OM-1 onto my Stellarvue SV102ED. The SV102ED has dual mounting rings with pre-drilled 6mm holes across the top of each ring. The OM-1 is threaded for a 1/4 x 20 screw. I have a short dovetail with a 1/4 x 20 hole that I can attach to the rings. I need some sort of adaptor (or whatever) to go between the camera and the dovetail. I've searched all over with no luck. Everything seems to be for an SCT. What do I need? Maybe a ball head? Thanks?
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Suk Lee
Post Laureate
Reged: 10/07/03
Posts: 4315
Loc: Pleasanton, CA
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Just get a 1/4 x 20 bolt and a good quality ball-head that doesn't creep. Bogen makes several that are reasonably priced and won't creep up to around 180mm (which is a really nice focal length for widefield film). You can also get their 3-axis head with 3 separate locks, which really works well (but a bit of a pain to adjust)
Put the bolt into your dovetail, then get your handy dandy Dremel moto-tool with cutoff wheel (you DO have one, right? You MUST have one!) and cut off all but about 3/8" off the top of the bolt.
Then screw the ball-head into the remaining male portion of the bolt and voila, you have a custom dovetail + ballhead mount for widefield astrophotography.
Cheers,
Suk
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http://www.siliconvalleyskies.com
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tommyhawk13
sage
Reged: 09/28/07
Posts: 492
Loc: Jacksonville, Fl
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I found a decent ballhead made by SunPak at Ritz camera. It was about $35.00, and has a quick release. I posted earlier in this section about a side by side mount, and it's holding a heavy Yashica camera with a 200mm lens. It seems rock solid.
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Meade Starfinder 8,Meade SN-8 OTA, Orion Atlas, and a handfull of film cameras
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palerider
member
Reged: 06/19/08
Posts: 70
Loc: Rancho Cucamonga, CA
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Quote:
Just get a 1/4 x 20 bolt and a good quality ball-head that doesn't creep. Bogen makes several that are reasonably priced and won't creep up to around 180mm (which is a really nice focal length for widefield film). You can also get their 3-axis head with 3 separate locks, which really works well (but a bit of a pain to adjust)
Put the bolt into your dovetail, then get your handy dandy Dremel moto-tool with cutoff wheel (you DO have one, right? You MUST have one!) and cut off all but about 3/8" off the top of the bolt.
Then screw the ball-head into the remaining male portion of the bolt and voila, you have a custom dovetail + ballhead mount for widefield astrophotography.
Cheers,
Suk
Thanks, Suk. A custom dovetail and ballhead mount? I like the concept, not too crazy about the 3-axis head and related alignment issues. I might go with the SunPak (or a similar Bogen) that tommyhawk13 mentioned though. The fewer things I have to fiddle with, the better.
This may come as a shock to you, but NO, I don't have a Dremel tool (laffs). However, I got creative. I removed the 1/4 x 20 thumbscrew from an old table-top tripod I had in the closet. Slid it into the hole in the dovetail plate and reattached the retaining washer. Fits perfectly in the recessed space in the dovetail plate, no cutting required. Now all I need is the ballhead.
I also found this adaptor (Link). I believe it will fit on my dovetail plate. Looks like it will anyway. The only issue I see is that the camera is mounted fairly close to the OTA. I think the camera may "see" the tube with a shorter lens like my 50mm or maybe even a longer telephoto? Any thoughts about this solution? Thanks again.
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Suk Lee
Post Laureate
Reged: 10/07/03
Posts: 4315
Loc: Pleasanton, CA
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Quote:
...but NO, I don't have a Dremel tool (laffs)
Yes, you will probably get a bit of the OTA in a 50mm lens if you run the lens along the optical axis of the SCT. But you can just tilt the camera up a bit. With a long lens (300mm) you'll get some trailing because of the misalignment of tracking angles, but with 50mm you'll be OK.
Cheers,
Suk
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http://www.siliconvalleyskies.com
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