7 replies to this topic

[morgan a.]

When I am not ogling the heavens with Big Bertha, my modified 12” Dob, (S&T January 2022), I rendezvous under the bedazzled night canopy with Starling, my 6” SCT, which I use as an incidental/travel scope on a manual EQ mount. The following suggestions are intended for improvements upon those minimalist setups with an SCT on a manual EQ mount.

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[GalaxyPiper]

Well done!

I am also a fan of thinking smarter, and not working harder.

These are all nice suggestions and we'll thought out.

Which usually happens when you sit in the dark for hours upon hours.

[morgan a.]

Addendum to the Telrad Mounting Base:

 

If you are not keen on drilling a reflector's OTA or have an SCT or refractor with a sealed OTA, one alternate option to attach optical accessories is to use a Telrad mounting base with 3M foam adhesive tape (supplied with base) and modifying the Telrad risers to receive the desired accessory.

 

I attched one to my 12" Dob as well as one on the 6" SCT (see pics).  The tape is very strong/efficient and long-lasting, resulting in a 'permanent' feature, so make sure you are happy with the exact placement prior to attaching.  You may want to modify the riser and connect optical accessory to base and hold or temporarily attach it to the OTA while you view through it and determine desired placement prior to fully attaching with the adhesive tape.

 

I attacehd a Synta style shoe to a riser/base on my Dob to accept a red dot finder (I favor both a 'macro' red dot and 'micro' StellarVue 9x50 scope for navigation).  Additionally, I can swap the red dot for a Telrad in under 60 seconds.  On the SCT I bolted the scope mounting rings to the modified riser which mates with the base.  Again, a swap of the scope with a Telrad is fast and efficient.  The tape has held up with no issues on the SCT to support the heavier StellarVue 9 x 50 finder scope at all angles on a manual German Equatorial Mount.

 

On the Dob I modified a 2" riser by cutting down the front/back portions to reduce the size of the mounting surface to accept the shoe. The 2" elevation was necessary for visual clearance.  On the SCT I cut off the vertical legs and top plate entirely and bolted the scope rings to the base portion of a 2" riser which mates with the Telrad mounting base.

 

A current perusal of Agena seems to show the riser design has changed, which may change the approach.  The older design appears to offer more latitude in modification than the new(er) design, if you can find them:

 

https://agenaastro.c...esult/?q=telrad

 

m

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[goldenraccoon]

Very impressive and dedicated work, I applaud you

[Moon Mute]

Thank you for the great suggestions!

[telesonic]

That's thinking outside the box, love it!

 

I'm going to implement a few of your mods to some of my gear. I occasionaly use an older Ultima HD tripod (Celestron SCT) for my setup...  various scopes, and one point of failure seems to be the leg locking clamps on some versions.

 

I'd rather not dump the whole kit into the dirt. Your Clevis pin clip mod would be a good failsafe backup, and easily doable with some drilling and hardware. 

 

The EP reference strapped to the dew shield is just plain genius. 

Also, with it being laminated,  it would hold up to dew, etc... and probably last forever. Easily stored in your case as well. (I also use Apache cases....for all sorts of gear.)

 

Just a FYI, you may want some locks for your hard cases. I just went through this last week.... for my drone kit, or if you have multiple cases of things like camera's and eyepieces.

 

Anvil (brand) has a combo lock, TSA compliant... if you are flying. Four packs are not much dinero's on the big A. 

 

You've got some great and innovative ideas with this, so thank you for sharing them here.

 

 

 

Cheers, 

T

[morgan a.]

T,

 

Thanks for the suggestions.  Some mfgs/retailers call the pins Clevis whilst others call it a PTO pin - rose by any other name is still the same, so long as it has a swivel bale.  They are ubiquitous and found at all hardware stores.  I removed legs from tripod and drilled with a drill press after center punchng with a metal punch to prevent bit from straying.  Best to start wih a smaller diameter pilot bit/hole and then drill with desired diameter bit to fit pin.

 

I also have a similiar EP chart magnetically attached to OTA of a 12" Dob.  I really do refer to them quite often during viewing sessions for reference and comparison to know AFOV agaisnt the sky/targets and expected results of magnification variances for a given target.  Both attached docs are the MS Word EP tables if you want to adapt/use without reinventing.

 

Thx,

m

 

 

Attached Files

•  Dob Aperture Matrix.docx   17.6KB   14 downloads
•  6SE Aperture Matrix.docx   16.96KB   8 downloads

[JSTAR0057]

Great article with some good suggestions. The Apache cases from Harbor Freight sound like a good bargin compared to some other brands found in the United States.