Advice on fitting AO8T to FW8G-STT filter wheel (SBIG)

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Hello folks, anybody with an AO8-T and the above filter wheel and the STT 8300 camera help me sort the mounting of the AO8T out?
I am a bit confused about the D blocks etc and would love a picture from someone who has this set up to show me which way around the whole thing goes
Cheers
Graham

[pluto (Hugh)]

It's been a while since I fitted mine as I leave it on permanently but here a couple of quick snaps of it.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Thanks for that Hugh- just what I needed.
Can you just confirm that the AO8-T cable goes back to the camera and the filter wheel (self guiding) cable then goes into the AO8-T?
I notice you have the Baader 2" nose piece on yours- do have any issues finding a guide star?

Cheers
Graham.

[pluto (Hugh)]

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

Can you just confirm that the AO8-T cable goes back to the camera and the filter wheel (self guiding) cable then goes into the AO8-T?
I notice you have the Baader 2" nose piece on yours- do have any issues finding a guide star?

Cheers
Graham.

Yep the AO cable to the camera then the FW cable to the AO.

Never had a problem with a guide star. On most targets I find at least one nice bright guide star at 0.2 or 0.3 sec exposures so I'm guiding at 3 or 4Hz. The worst I've had was 1 Hz, that was imaging M83, but that's on my TSA120 so not the biggest aperture.

Guiding used to be such a headache for me with a QHY5L-II on a finderguider and PHD. I use CCDSoft now and it's just calibrate then set-and-forget, the guide star barely twitches, and that's on an EQ6

[SpaceNoob (Chris)]

I grabbed a few images when I was doing a some tests a few months back, hope this helps.

Cheers,

Chris.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Cheers fellas, now looking forward to first light!!

[Peter Ward]

That is the incorrect way to fit the AO-8T to the FW8-G filter wheel.

The AO will not sit flush...it is infact out by 1-2mm due the FW8-G's cover's guide assembly section.

The AO should look "offset" with the cabling 180 degrees relative to the cameras cables when fitted correctly.

The two attached images should make it clear.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Ahh! thanks for that Peter..

[pluto (Hugh)]

Whoa! So I've had my AO on upside down all this time!!!
And so has Chris below by the looks of it!

Yet it's been working perfectly!?

I've just had a glance back at the instructions that come with the ao-8t, Ah I remember now, it doesn't have instructions for attaching the AO to the FW8G so I've followed the instructions for attaching it to a CFW8 which has the cables all on the same side.

[SpaceNoob (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

That is the incorrect way to fit the AO-8T to the FW8-G filter wheel.

The AO will not sit flush...it is infact out by 1-2mm due the FW8-G's cover's guide assembly section.

The AO should look "offset" with the cabling 180 degrees relative to the cameras cables when fitted correctly.

The two attached images should make it clear.

Oh damn.... that's a bit awkward

Everything is boxed away until the observatory arrives, I'll ensure it has the correct orientation when I setup everything again. To be honest, the image train was very solid and stable for ~5 hours of test imaging at 2.4m focal length. I had some slight drift in the tracking logs but I figured this was due to having the tripod sitting on pavers.