Thanks to Phil and Tony and Tim. Phil brought his tap and die kit to the CAO; Tony brought me a little piece of steel. Tim reinforced I should not drill into the C8 tube (at least while fully assembled).
The holes for the Orion dovetail did not match those of the cheapo Celestron finder scope mount. One option was to drill into the rear cell, make a new hole, and then thread it. That unnerved me a little. One of these days I will take apart the C8... Tim replied quickly to an email shot across the bow and he said the mirror should be removed before drilling.
An alternate approach popped into my brain. Get a hunk of metal plate. Screw it to the original Celestron mounting holes. Then in the plate make different, new holes for the Orion.
It worked!
Note the original hex head round-top screw holding the new steel plate to the OTA. You can just barely see the opposite round head under the Orion dovetail.
§
It did not occur to me in selecting a new finder scope, with its own dovetail, that it would be removeable. That I can remove the finder scope means that the OTA will be that much easier to pack and transport.
§
All that said, this just lengthened the set up time for the SCT. The finder scope needs to be mounted and aligned for each session...
No comments:
Post a Comment