Bizaar balancing act with my GSO RC8

Carl · #1 13-11-2011, 01:54 AM

Strangest thing kept on occuring whilst trying to balance my GSORC8. Never happened before with any scope i have used.

I have a small converted 9x50 finderscope guide scope mounted on the supplied Vixen bar on top of the scope. To the left hand side i have mounted my Skwatcher 9x 50 finderscope in the bracket supplied.

All seemed balanced except when i loosened the Dec lock and tilted the scope upwards. As i pointed the scope up it tillted towards the side of the additional finderscope . I tried this experiment on both sides of the mount facing the scope up and down with the same result. It was as if the weight of the additional finderscope was dragging the scope in that direction. This may have been the cause of my earlier frustrations whislt collimating of not being able to track correctly on a star.
This doesn't occure with my C8 or my Skywatcher 80ed.

Has anyone come across this problem? I have added a little bit of weight on the opposite side of the scope but it is not a satisfactory outcome.

I suppose i could get a lighter finderscope but the skywatcher 9x50 gives such a good clean field.

Regards
Carl

dugnsuz (Doug) · #2 29-11-2011, 07:40 AM

Hi Carl - just found this post.
I had similar issues - I'm using a Finder-Guider attached to the left hand side of the scope. Couldn't achieve balance at all until I removed it (even with ADM counterbalance weight hanging off the nose of the RC8)

Fixed by moving the finder guider to the centre holes vacated by the removal of the Losmandy D plate. Locating the 9x50/QHY5 on axis has worked and the scope is balanced well now.

I understand your frustrations Carl.

Doug

Tandum (Robin) · #3 30-11-2011, 01:34 AM

I got around these issues by removing the finder. I simply gunsight the scope at a known star, sync to that star in the sky then image it and pinpoint it with maxim.
Once it resolves, sync to the pinpointed location then slew to target and repeat. Works for me every time.

Doug, I'd be interested to hear how much flex you see with that setup. I moved to an OAG with the RC8.