Wanted to show you all my gear. It's been a while in the making but I've finally got my setup to a point where I might start enjoying what we do rather than running into problem after problem. I spent a lot of time trying to make several different types of dob platforms but none where up to the job of imaging, quite obvious now..................but I am a newbie and the learning curve is steep! (vertical in some cases!)
Anyway, I've ended up with a modded 12" lightbridge on a G-11. The lightbridge is probably not the best imaging scope but once aperture fever takes hold.........I also like the idea of imaging straight onto the chip, no glass to go through seemed like a good thing. I've had to move the mirror up the tube about 30mm and use a motorized low profile focuser. This leaves me with about 8mm of in focus to spare. The plate for attaching the dovetail was my little creation, it's ultra solid and so far has shown no flex as it moves around the sky. The trusses have been tweaked to make sure they stay put, again they seem to be doing just that. The most important thing I found I had to do was upgrade the collimation locking screws to make sure the mirror didn't shift under it's own weight.
Guiding with the little 80 on Losmandys' side-by-side setup seems good, and that's my 900spc inside a bit of 50mm alli tube sticking out the back of it. I'm yet to test out long guides with this setup, but it should be OK.
Now all I have to do is learn the finer art of imaging! Keep posting everyone, I find it amazing the amount of knowledge you can find in one spot.
