Help - Losmandy users.

[[1ponders]]

Hope one of the Losmandy owners here can help me with this problem. I've just received my dovetail assembly for my 8" meade and I can't seem to get one of the brackets to line up with more than one hole on the OTA. I thought that maybe I had been sent the wrong bracket but checking the Losmandy site the dovetail assembly definately shows that one of the brackets is smaller than the other.

As you can see from the image with the larger bracket there are two sets of screw holes at the outer bevelled ends and one in the center. Three of these line up with existing holes in the OTA collar. The other two bolt to the dovetail itself.

But if you look at the smaller one the only way it can be attached is through the center slot. Neither of the other two slots line up with anything. In fact I have to remove two screws just to get it to sit flat. Again the two outer holes are for bolting the dovetail to the brackets.

Any ideas. I'm at my wits end. I definately don't think that one bolt will be enough to hold the thing stable with a guidescope hanging off it.

[beren]

Paul the smaller block goes at the front and is only connected by one supplied bolt {dont worry its a firm hold } heres some pics of mine

[[1ponders]]

Thanks Stuart. For a great system it seems to me to be a bit of a bodgey setup. Why not make the bracket the same as the other one??? BTW boy, with rings on its heavy. nearly 2 kg. I'm starting to push the astrophotography limit of the GM-8 now.

[beren]

:confused: Yep i agree strange but it works , i was worried to with people describing the front block doesnt have cuts to allow the two outer front stock bolt heads to remain , fortunately at least the makers have corrected that .

[[1ponders]]

What size allen key did you use to tighten the bolts up. Must be a weird size as I have a full set of metric and imperial and none of them fit:(

[beren]

A 3mm for the dark coated bolts that connect the dovetail plate to the blocks and a 9/64 for the silver bolts that hold the blocks to the OTA

[[1ponders]]

Well that stuffs me. I don't have any Dark coated bolts:P But got that one anyway. Its the blocks to the OTA that's causing me grief atm. I substituted a the two centre ones with bolts I already had and have an allen key for. I'll take one of the supplied ones down to super cheap tomorrow and see if i can pick up the allen key I need to tighten up the two outer block bolts properly. You can only get them so tight using a phillips head screwdriver :ashamed:

[beren]

:doh: Yanks hey .......Paul have you noticed too you can use one of the Dr125 mounting blocks {take the tube ring off}as a nifty camera holder with its supplied bolt {you can run the camera up the plate so you can use a 50mm lens and not get half a dew sheild in the pic :D }

[[1ponders]]

I hadn't gotten that far yet Stuart. :P Thanks for that. I'm still working on getting the rings on the tube. I ordered a new D series saddle, Dovetail plate for the meade and a set of rings. What I didn't order was another dovetail plate to put the rings on. :doh: :tasdevil: I've just ordered the new dovetail so I have a week or so to wait for that. I was going to order the side by side plate until I saw how heavy it was. I think with everything mounted the side by side will make the whole lot too heavy.