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Old 25-03-2008, 09:54 PM
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Escortitis
George

Escortitis is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Greenwood, Perth WA
Posts: 72
Hi Peter,

I posted the pic of my setup up the thread a bit, it's a very new setup however I have had the time to play a bit. I have limited knowledge of what I'm doing, I'm new to astronomy, having said that, a good balance of your scopes is a must for accurate guiding and imaging as anyone here will tell you.

With the setup shown, with cameras and other equipment on, I have achieved what I believe to be excellent balance on both the RA and DEC. Granted it was harder to achieve but it was possible. I started with DEC balance first (contrary to everything I've read, but....) by rolling the RA over so the counter weight bar was parallel to the ground and both scope's pointing straight up. I moved the guide scope in or out on the SBS plate to achieve balance in this position. (I've put the newt as close to the center of the mount as the dovetail would allow, 18kg v 1kg, enough said.) Leaving RA where it was, I rolled the DEC 90 degrees so both the scopes were parallel to the ground as well as the counter weight bar, and moved the newt along it's dovetail until a good balance was achieved in this position. I found you can use the guide scope for 'fine' balance in the same method.

RA balance was by the book, all be it last on the agenda. My setup is permanent, so once I got it right I haven't changed a thing, merely moving the guide scope back a fraction if I plug the barlow in.

I hope there isn't too many blokes shaking their heads about now, and like I said I haven't been doing this long, however using this method I have a SBS setup and I also have great balance in all orientations.

Lastly some egg sucking, Make sure you get a rough balance with your big scope and the counter weight first, that first flip over to the horizontal might hurt!

If you go with a SBS setup I hope this helps Peter

George
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