RC Imaging off a tripod, anyone doing it?

[glend (Glen)]

Going off to my dark site for the March New Moon but have some concerns about taking my RC08 due to tripod use. At home it rides on my obs pier mounted guided NEQ6Pro and no problems, but out at the dark site it will have to sit on the tripod. I am worried about the relatively long focal length (1624mm) imaging at f8 long sub times on the tripod (mount guided of course). Is anyone doing this? Weight of the RC08 is not an issue for the mount, just tripod stability for that focal length.

[RickS (Rick)]

I image at 2700mm on a tripod, albeit a very well constructed one with an Astro-Physics AP900 mount.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Glen, at AstroFest I've seen much bigger scopes than a RC08 riding on an EQ6 and I've witnessed the subs too

For what little difference it might make, keep the tripod legs as short as possible and do your drift alignment (I use DARV) with the scope you intend to image with.

Btw, remember a thread last year abut my "new" imaging scope? It illustrated subs taken with my C8 at f/10, and we have the same mount.

Btw2, I've found when imaging from a grassed area that it's worth checking the drift during twilight as the tripod has a tendency to sink in to the ground over the course of a couple of days with a payload.

[DJT (David)]

Hi Glen
Have used the RC8 on the AP900 and with the STL on a tripod and it worked fine. Avoid the grass though as mentioned earlier.

Having said that, David Naskies used to do some amazing stuff with his on an EQ6 but havnt seen him on the forum for a while.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

I would suggest getting some ceramic tiles, around 10-15 cms square, to put under the tips of your tripod if you have any sort of soft'ish ground. This will limit and sinkage.