8 replies to this topic

[Bryan Flanagan]

Observe this on my S30 and S50, and with two different mounts, a fluid head and a MoveShootMove wedge.  After a short outing, the connection between the head plate and the Seestar is loose and it loses alignment.

 

Suspect that the top of the head or wedge is making contact with the bottom of the scope, outside of the circular rubberized shaft on the Seestar that turns.  In particular when it is tilted for EQ mode and gravity pulls one side of the scope a bit closer to the head.  But it could be other things.

 

Wondering if anyone else encounters this, and what some remedies are.  I've considered building some makeshift risers to put more space between the scope body and the mount head.  

[gooeytek]

Some users have reported that the little rubber pads at the corners sometimes catch on something.  I've noticed this on mine, when it was mounted on a long QR plate. I added a couple of washers so the pads clear.

[ParadigmShift]

Some users have reported that the little rubber pads at the corners sometimes catch on something.  I've noticed this on mine, when it was mounted on a long QR plate. I added a couple of washers so the pads clear.

I was gonna say, a washer or 2 should remedy the situation.

[Digital Don]

Observe this on my S30 and S50, and with two different mounts, a fluid head and a MoveShootMove wedge.  After a short outing, the connection between the head plate and the Seestar is loose and it loses alignment.

 

Suspect that the top of the head or wedge is making contact with the bottom of the scope, outside of the circular rubberized shaft on the Seestar that turns.  In particular when it is tilted for EQ mode and gravity pulls one side of the scope a bit closer to the head.  But it could be other things.

 

Wondering if anyone else encounters this, and what some remedies are.  I've considered building some makeshift risers to put more space between the scope body and the mount head.  

I'm using Skywatcher wedges for my S30 and S50.  Before that I was using a quick-release system and it was necessary to remove the small rubber feet from the bottom of the S50 to prevent the QR plate from coming into contact with them. A spacer might work as well but since I don't remove the Skywatcher dovetail from my S50, the feet serve no purpose so I left them off.  

 

A friend had an issue similar to yours with his S50 using a Skywatcher wedge.  In his case though, there was no interference between the dovetail plate and the feet.  The problem was that there was not enough friction between the smooth surface of the plate and the bottom of the Seestar to prevent it from slipping no matter how much he tightened the screw. He was able to resolve the issue by cutting a disc of non-slip material and attaching it to the top of the dovetail plate.  

 

Don

Edited by Digital Don, 21 May 2025 - 04:05 PM.

[Bryan Flanagan]

Thanks for the replies.  It's not the triangular feet on the bottom of the S50 making contact with the plate.  My problem also occurs with the S30, and the area of the mount plate is around that of the circular RA drive on the bottom of the S30.  The corners of the rubberized plate top just barely protrude beyond the circle of the RA drive shaft on the bottom of the S30.  

 

Another possibility is that I initially screwed the plate into the S30 bottom while inside and warm.  After an hour outside in ~20 degrees cooler temperature, the screw on the plate, the 1/4-3/8 adapter, and the 3/8 hole on the Seestar have all contracted just a bit.  Perhaps just enough to make these two contact points (Plate screw <-> Adapter <-> S30 3/8" hole) become loose.  

 

It's annoying enough that I have not used EQ mode too much for what it is good at -- long imaging sessions, because I'm afraid of it unscrewing itself so much it falls off the mount.  

[sanford12]

If you use the Sky Watcher EQ base it doesn't hit once the you find the right replacement bolt. I went with a short allen head, nothing hits and it's got all it's rubber feet. Also it you use the SW EQ base there's a screw that keeps the Seestar from sliding off the rail. Used a small drop of blue Loctite on the bolt of the dovetail mounting plate that screws to the S50. Don't see a need to go back to alt/as as EQ works so well.

 

With the SW EQ base once it's set it's good to go. Now I pick it up carry it to the polar aligned pad set it down eyeball Polaris and have gotten 2 greens 7 times in a row on 7 separate nights Cant speak to what your using but swear by the SW style EQ mounts.

Edited by sanford12, 21 May 2025 - 05:52 PM.

[LightningMount]

Some users have reported that the little rubber pads at the corners sometimes catch on something.  I've noticed this on mine, when it was mounted on a long QR plate. I added a couple of washers so the pads clear.

The little rubber pads around the perimeter of the bottom got caught for me as well and really messed up EQ mode for me.  It turns out that my old leveling base solution for making it easier to level the Seestar for Alt/Az mode also works well for adjusting your polar alignment AND it solves the rubber pad problem as well by lifting the Seestar up off the surface of the mounting plate area so the rubber pads don't stick, 2 birds 1 stone  .  Now I easily get 0° of error in both altitude and azimuth when I polar align and 30 and even 60 second subs are quite doable.  30 seconds definitely have fewer dropped subs, so I am sticking with that.  I NEVER got 30 second subs to work well with Alt/Az mode, so this is a nice upgrade for me. 

 

Details on how I set this up:

 

What I do is get the angle right on my wedge and then lock that in forever.  For azimuth, I manhandle the wedge+tripod to point the Seestar exactly to the celestial pole on the azimuth axis.  Fortunately for me the wedgepod+Seestar that I use is pretty light and easy to manipulate this way.  Then I use my leveling base to fine tune the altitude which will invariably tweak the azimuth as well by a little bit, but the leveling base can do both so it works perfectly as the final step.  I can move the tripod+Seestar to any location around my back or front yard and the wedge angle is correct (I could probably move it within 100 miles of my location and that would still be true).  You could get a wedge with alt/az adjustments built in but I found the saddle clamp knob would invariably get in the way and I was not a fan of the "just use a comically long bolt with knob" approach.  I had an old wedgepod to put my Seestar at the right angle and with the level I already had, this got the job done.

 

The Seestar is so much fun to use this way!  I take it out with my other rig and the Seestar has more than an hour of integration done (and some pretty pictures) before I have even cooled down my C11 SCT, and I still haven't even started to polar align and fine tune my focus on my rig yet.  And don't get me started on how heavy and cumbersome to move that C11+heavy duty tripod is  .  Since I am just starting my astrophotography journey/torture, there are nights where I feel like I got nothing accomplished except debugging my rig, but now at least I have some nice data from my Seestar to show for it  .

 

I am now wondering if I could use my Seestar to do double duty as a polar alignment tool by attaching it to my C11's mount using a simple dovetail attachment to the Seestar and use the mount as a kind of manually adjustable tripod and wedge.  I am guessing Sharpcap or NINA polar alignment with the cameras on the C11 attached to the mount would be more accurate, but it would be a fun experiment to compare the results.  Probably cheaper to just buy a polar scope attachment, but not as fun  .

 

Here's a photo of my setup:

 

 

Clear skies

Edited by LightningMount, 21 May 2025 - 08:27 PM.

[Phil Perry]

Some users have reported that the little rubber pads at the corners sometimes catch on something.  I've noticed this on mine, when it was mounted on a long QR plate. I added a couple of washers so the pads clear.

I tried EQ mode with a new Skywatcher wedge (with the locking knob replaced by a bolt with an angled arm). Once or twice the corner pads did just catch on the bolt arm and caused some concerning noises from the drive! Next time I'm going to try a thick washer to separate the base from the wedge by a mm or two -- that ought to be enough, without the Seestar threatening to fall off. I hope I don't have to do anything about increasing friction beween the Seestar base and the dovetail wedge (a layer of masking tape on both?).

[Digital Don]

I tried EQ mode with a new Skywatcher wedge (with the locking knob replaced by a bolt with an angled arm). Once or twice the corner pads did just catch on the bolt arm and caused some concerning noises from the drive! Next time I'm going to try a thick washer to separate the base from the wedge by a mm or two -- that ought to be enough, without the Seestar threatening to fall off. I hope I don't have to do anything about increasing friction beween the Seestar base and the dovetail wedge (a layer of masking tape on both?).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had previously removed the rubber feet from the S50 in a previous setup and never replaced them.  Since I don't plan to use either of my Seestars in Alt-Az mode again, I keep the dovetails attach to both.. 

 

Removing the feet is easy and eliminates any possibility of anything coming in contact with the dovetail plate without increasing the distance between the bottom of the scope and the top of the plate. Washers would work too but you will most likely need some anti-slip material between the dovetail plate.  Masking tape doesn't have enough grip to be effective for that application but a couple of layers of rubber shelf liner should do the trick though. 

 

Here's a closeup of my S50 setup.  The locking knob for the dovetail is a spring-loaded  'ratcheting' design I purchased on amazon.  When the handle is parallel to the dovetail it's easy to insert, turned as shown it's fully locked in place and there is no interference with the scope. 

 

Don

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Edited by Digital Don, 22 May 2025 - 11:41 PM.