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idahoman
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/25/05
Loc: Idaho, USA
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Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
#2947335 - 02/24/09 04:15 PM
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I was kind of thinking about dismounting my Celestron 9.25 Nexstar GPS OTA and sticking a 8" Astrotech RC in it's place. Not sure if it is possible, or even a good idea. But, with my AO-8 my mount tracks sub pixel and I was thinking wouldn't it be cool if . . . Any comments?
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Kolenka
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/01/08
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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Re: Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
[Re: idahoman]
#2947368 - 02/24/09 04:32 PM
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Would be tough. The spacing between the forks is pretty much set for the 9.25's outer diameter.
Now, you could create a cradle or something like that, but your center of gravity would get outta whack in the process. This is unfortunately why a lot of people who start building up a scope collection move to GEM or other dovetail-based mount. Forks are fairly specialized.
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idahoman
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/25/05
Loc: Idaho, USA
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Re: Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
[Re: Kolenka]
#2947505 - 02/24/09 06:24 PM
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I'm thinking just some aluminum blocks to center the 8" between the forks.
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Cyclop_si
professor emeritus
Reged: 03/13/08
Loc: Slovenia
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Re: Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
[Re: idahoman]
#2948329 - 02/25/09 04:44 AM
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Why you would do this?
RC is mainly AP instrument, thus you should mount it on GEM. Fork is nice for visual, but not for AP.
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jrcrilly
Refractor wienie no more
Reged: 04/30/03
Loc: NE Ohio
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Re: Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
[Re: Cyclop_si]
#2948434 - 02/25/09 07:47 AM
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Quote:
Why you would do this?
RC is mainly AP instrument, thus you should mount it on GEM. Fork is nice for visual, but not for AP.
A German EQ mount can provide a very good imaging platform, and is the most popular choice, but it's not the only option. Forkmounts are the second most popular - and have their own strong points in that application so long as tube lengths are reasonable (as with Cassegrain designs).
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idahoman
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/25/05
Loc: Idaho, USA
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Re: Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
[Re: jrcrilly]
#2948646 - 02/25/09 10:21 AM
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Fork mounts have some advantages over GEMs. For instance, no meridian flip to worry about. And, with my AO-8, I am guiding subpixel anyway. The C9.25 has good optics as far as a SCT goes, but I get some curvature on my ST2000 chip. So, I was thinking maybe a RC would improve things.
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Kolenka
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 06/01/08
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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Re: Fork Mount Ritchey-Chrétien
[Re: jrcrilly]
#2948975 - 02/25/09 01:10 PM
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Quote:
Quote:
Why you would do this?
RC is mainly AP instrument, thus you should mount it on GEM. Fork is nice for visual, but not for AP.
A German EQ mount can provide a very good imaging platform, and is the most popular choice, but it's not the only option. Forkmounts are the second most popular - and have their own strong points in that application so long as tube lengths are reasonable (as with Cassegrain designs).
I'd agree that a good fork can compete with a GEM. But the fork has to be good. With the tolerances Meade produces theirs with, for example, it is pretty easy to get one you'd have to supercharge just to get reliable tracking out of it for AP.
Now, it sounds like the OP already has a good fork, and the gear to make up for any remaining (minor) deficiencies in the tracking. My only real concern is the mounting of the RC and the difference between the tube ODs. Meade's fork mounts use curved mounting braces that make them really hard to adapt to a different scope without hand crafting replacement braces. I don't know if recent Celestrons have the same shape or not.
If they are generally flat, aluminum blocks might work, although I'd wait to see what sort of mounting points are on the OTA first. They might not have reliable mounting points if you intend to piggyback anything on this scope. If you don't want to piggyback anything, you might be able to get away with a dual-dovetail setup on the OTA, and work on the fork so it provides two saddles that match. Might work.
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