Clamshell suggestion for Skywatcher ED50

[ahmed_haider]

I'm building a small portable rig for astrophotography. Right now it's only suitable for EAA since I have no guide camera and only a flimsy manfrotto tripod (the cheapest one I could find :D )
But the Skywatcher 50ED scope and the Skywatcher AZ-GTi mount are excellent (atleast in my opinion :) ), i've attached 2 images taken with it....these are unguided 20x30 sec subs live-stacked in Sharpcap and tweaked just a bit in Gimp. No lights flats or darks....taken with the ZWO ASI585MC camera.

I'm looking to upgrade this setup and try longer exposures. Right now i'm thinking to upgrade the tripod and get a clamshell ring instead of the guide scope rings I have right now, since I can't attach a guide scope to this setup right now.

Should I change my priorities?
Any suggestions are welcome!

I was looking at the offering from Starizona:
https://starizona.com/products/evoguide-50-3d-printed-clamshell

But the shipping is twice the price of the clamshell itself :P

Thanks for looking!

[Saturnine]

Hi Ahmed
I think your guide rings are fine, the weak link is the tripod, in my opinion. The way the mount is sitting on the tripod does not instil much confidence in the stability of the rig. Also, have one of the tripod legs facing south, so that there is more support under the over hanging weight of the set up.
I'm no expert in the dark depths of astrophotography but the set up does look a bit ungainly. A solid tripod is the 1st priority, before guide rings or clamshell .

[ahmed_haider]

Thanks, you're absolutely right.....the setup on that tripod looks like it would topple over any time and actually I remember slewing from one side of the sky to another the go-to would lose track of where it was supposed to be. Probably the tripod shifted.
I'll go for a better tripod first.