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I'm wondering if anyone has found a good dovetail and rings combination for an ST80 refractor? Mine is the Meade Adventure Scope 80, an Orion ST80 clone.
The dovetail I have now is a ScopeStuff 11 inch direct replacement for the Meade LXD55 telescopes and mount. It's threaded holes are too long to use for my Orion scope rings properly and don't give me the correct spacing to fit the tube so I resorted to bolts that interfere with mounting and balancing the scope on my mount. The other method is the little 2 inch dovetail already attached to the scope. It works without rings but still gives me a balancing problem. I would like a better mounting solution using the rings that gives the proper ring spacing for the OTA, which is about 3.5 inches center to center.
Any advice would be helpful! Here's pics of the methods I've been using on my Twilight II mount:
Attachments
Bruce
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15. Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains. Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts. Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces. Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
I went with Orion rings on my Meade 80mm A-scope and I had a spare Vixen-style rail from somewhere - don't remember the vendor - but it has slots so the attachment points were not a problem. You could check Agena Astro and / or ScopeStuff.
Just for grins, I recently took the rings and rail off and have been using the shorty rail that came attached to the scope. Seems to be ok, but I think I prefer the sense of security when using rings over the weight savings without.
I also have an L-bracket that's a Vixen rail with a flat arm at 90 degrees with a setscrew on the bottom. No rings needed with that and it supports the OTA from the bottom.
The rail:
============================================================================= I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do. =============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
notFritzArgelander wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:40 am
Yes, I didn't like the mounting block either so on my Orion ST 80 I removed it and replaced it with a short Orion Vixen style dovetail and rings.
pakarinen wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 1:27 pm
I went with Orion rings on my Meade 80mm A-scope and I had a spare Vixen-style rail from somewhere - don't remember the vendor - but it has slots so the attachment points were not a problem. You could check Agena Astro and / or ScopeStuff.
Just for grins, I recently took the rings and rail off and have been using the shorty rail that came attached to the scope. Seems to be ok, but I think I prefer the sense of security when using rings over the weight savings without.
I also have an L-bracket that's a Vixen rail with a flat arm at 90 degrees with a setscrew on the bottom. No rings needed with that and it supports the OTA from the bottom.
The rail:
That rail looks like it would work, especially with the balancing problem because it's adjustable. Now I will need to find one similar, possibly on eBay? I tried Agena Astro, no luck. I checked ScopeStuff, but will check it again. I might have missed it.
Bruce
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15. Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains. Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts. Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces. Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
notFritzArgelander wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:40 am
Yes, I didn't like the mounting block either so on my Orion ST 80 I removed it and replaced it with a short Orion Vixen style dovetail and rings.
============================================================================= I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do. =============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
I bought the rings from Agena (Agena Telescope rings) and a slotted svbony 210mm dovetail from ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/SVBONY-210mm-L ... 3340216682
I had to find my own bolts with heads that can stay inside the slot of the dovetail.
The Agena Telescope ring's bolts did not work with Orion like dovetails on ebay (6mm vs 1/4-20), so before I bought the slotted dovetail, I drilled and countersunk holes in a dovetail that I had. But that dovetail was too short for balancing with a camera, so I had to eventually get the longer one linked above.
I bought the 4.7" dovetail from Amazon. It works perfect for the rings and 2" crayford focuser, but will still cause a balancing problem with my heavier eyepieces. Looks like I need about a 7" slotted rail to work the best. Back to the drawing board!
Bruce
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15. Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains. Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts. Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces. Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
pakarinen wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 1:27 pm
I went with Orion rings on my Meade 80mm A-scope and I had a spare Vixen-style rail from somewhere - don't remember the vendor - but it has slots so the attachment points were not a problem. You could check Agena Astro and / or ScopeStuff. ....
I did the same thing. I find that it works very well.
IIRC, I did have to replace the screws/bolts that came with the rings as the head wouldn't fit inside the dovetail's recessed slot. Not a big deal. I used some socket head cap screws that I purchased on Amazon but I can't remember the size right now. I also used a couple of small washers.
Here's a larger photo that shows the dovetail bar, rings, screws, etc. in better detail: