Hi guys, this is a pic of what I've been working on to sort out the balance problems with the QHY8 on my small 5" newt. I still need to get between 1 to 1.5kg of counter weight opposite the focuser but with this set-up I can image with a barlowx2 and be balanced in DEC while increasing my image scale to approx 1.2arcsec / pixel
.
The main plate is 12.7x90x500mm T6 aluminium plate bolted into the Losmandy universal plate. The bracket is 12mm plastic heat-bent at 90% and threaded into the alu plate. There's a 2" hole that fits the GSO extension tubes. The Barlow is threaded inside the extenstion tube and I also have the MPCC and filters at the end of the camera. So everything's in there inside the first tube.
The arrangement is rock solid and hopefully I won't have any flexure problems.
