Hi all
I'm frankly a tad tired of lugging the whole G-11 monster around from place to place, so I've been fiddling with a simple to set up and highly portable widefield system that utilised my Tak P2-Z mount (no guide port, simple and accurate clock drive at sidereal rate) and my new QHY-9 attached to any of a range of short Nikkor lenses that I have. The whole lot fits into a couple of average Pelican cases and weighs a fraction of the main rig.
I needed the whole geometry to be ultimately adjustable in order to accommodate the various lens lengths and barrel diameters. Guide rings attached to Losmandy adjustable D-series blocks were an ideal choice. These let me also "lock" focus once achieved via a 52mm Bahtinov mask that works very well. The blocks also let me slide the complete assembly up and down the saddle to find good balance easily and quickly. I'll accommodate the CFW shortly, once if organise a 54mm to T-thread adapter.
It's outside right now doing some work - testing for the first time with my 105mm f/2.5 running at f/5.6. The QHY-9 is cooling at 51% power and maintaining a temp of -20C, a delta-T of 42 deg C without breaking a sweat at 22 deg C ambient.
Good fun indeed.
Edit: Here's the hi-res result of a stack of 10 x 30sec, 10 x 60sec, 5 x 120 sec and 5 x 240 sec. Totally unguided.
3.4Mb -
http://macastro.org.au/gallery2/main...44e48f7ae439c5