unsuccessful first night with new equipment

[jcdundon]

Hello all, I finally got a chance to get out and try my new gear, an eq6 and SW ed80.

I set everything up with mount pointed roughly south, powered up and everything worked fine.

I attemped to polar align with the scope and could not see anything other than the red glow and the images in the scope, nothing in the background to line up with octans.

not too worried yet i figured i would try to drift align. I went through the set up and selected 3 star align. Selected the first star, it slewed to it, but when i looked through the ed80, nothing. not a thing, i tried all my eyepieces. i could not get anything to come even close to focusing, so i slewed to the moon to test if i can focus, and not even on the moon, seems like there is not enough out travel, but looking at it it comes a long way out.

Does the SW ed80 come to focus for visual without a diagonal (which i don't have). will i need to buy an extender or diagonal or am i doing something else wrong.:shrug:

Thanks for any advice

[Dennis]

My WO 80mm f7 requires an extension tube (approx 2" actual extension when inserted fully) and a 2" star diagonal to come to focus.

It seems that most, if not all of these 80mm 'scopes have short tubes and need extension tubes and star diagonals to achieve focus.

Cheers

Dennis

[jcdundon]

thanks for the reply. Looks like i'll have to get some more parts before i try again, i should have taken my 8 inch reflector with me, but i just wanted to test the setup and not carry too much stuff.

Things were so much easier when i could just go into the back yard.

[JohnG]

Hi

I run a SW ED80 as a guidescope with my Tak FS-102, I have found the following:

You need an extender tube for straight through viewing.

With a 2" diagonal, you will get focus.

Mounting your camera, you will need the extender tube.

You can mount a Flip Mirror and get focus without the extender tube.

Cheers

JohnG

[jcdundon]

no worries, looks like i need both then, to obtain focus with your camera, do i need a 35mm or 50 mm extension tube.

Thanks

[JohnG]

Hi

Get the 50mm extension tube.

Cheers

JohnG