If you can bring the rings and guidescope by my shop during the week, Joe, I can help you. Should be a quick, easy fix. On 5/2/10, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Friends, I've been thinking about changing my 120 or 125 mm. guide scope rings for 105 mm. -- I have both styles. Back ages ago Guy put a dovetail bar on my telescope, and he machined my larger-size rings to fit onto a dovetail clamp thingy that fits the bar. He did it with the larger size because I thought my scope could accommodate a big guide scope. That was wrong; I have downsized the guide scope twice, and now I'm using a good 80 mm Orion ShortTube as guide. It seems right. But with all the gear I put on the telescope, it's so heavy that I have trouble with autoguiding. I'd like to switch the rings from the larger size to the 105 mm. size, which weigh a little less, as I figure every extra ounce hurts. But when I take the clamp thingy off the large rings and put them on the smaller ones, I had two problems. First, I discovered that Guy had wisely planed down the bottom of the ring so it fit the clamp well, and cored out a cone in each ring where the screw goes in, so that the screw fits tightly and the ring is flat on the clamp. Second, the smaller rings are not as thick as the big ones, which could allow them to wobble on the clamp. I thought about pounding some sort of metal shims in at the connecting point to keep them tight.
What I'm wondering is, are there smaller dovetail brackets or clamps or whatever they are, that can fit the narrower rings? What should I do about stabilizing the clamps once they'r attached to the rings? Or is the small savings in weight not worth all the effort and mess? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Many thanks, Joe
________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Sun, May 2, 2010 5:56:14 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Atlas or CGEM?
I found a video on You Tube that clearly shows the CGEM mount using the wide dovetail.
I like this. I've always felt that the Orion narrow dovetail was anemic and prone to flexing. Were I to get this mount, I'd need to invest in wider dovetail bars, since I have a boxfull of Orion narrow dovetails.
Has anyone tried the narrow-to-wide dovetail "Adapter"?
On 5/2/10, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
Also, does anyone know if the Celestron and Orion dovetails are the same? Or does Celestron use the wider one?
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