Category Archives: Astro Equipment

Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 4)

Posted on September 12, 2014 by james

My new drills have arrived and I’ve now drilled all the holes for the RA motor mount. It looks a bit like a Swiss cheese. This is the “outside” face, with holes for the motor flange, the four mounting screws, … Continue reading →

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Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 3)

Posted on September 3, 2014 by james

My pulleys and drive belts arrived today. I removed the grub screws and drilled out the 48-tooth pulleys to 6mm (from 5mm) in the lathe to fit the worm spindles and the 16-tooth pulleys to 5mm (from 3mm) to fit … Continue reading →

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A new scope arrives

Posted on September 2, 2014 by james

No pictures yet, but last week a new telescope arrived. I’ve been promising myself an MN190 for some time if one came up second hand at a fair price and took the opportunity when it did having passed on several … Continue reading →

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Coronado PST filter mod for Atik 314L+

Posted on September 1, 2014 by james

In my previous posting about the mod I’ve done for my PST to move the BF5 closer to the sensor of my ASI120 I had an idea about doing the same for my Atik 314L+. I know this camera is … Continue reading →

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Coronado PST BF5 positioning mod

Posted on August 31, 2014 by james

A few days ago I posted about the problems with vignetting when imaging with a PST and decided that for me a solution might be to move the BF5 unit as close to the camera sensor as possible so that … Continue reading →

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Astro EQ conversion of EQ3-2 (part 2)

Posted on August 29, 2014 by james

I ordered some aluminium channel (1″x2″x1/8″) to make up the RA motor mount which arrived yesterday. I chose this size because there’s only one mounting hole for each of the normal aftermarket motors on the EQ3-2 and this would give … Continue reading →

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Shoddy Coronado PST build quality

Posted on August 26, 2014 by james

The constant rain this weekend meant indoor activity was called for, so I started work on my new PST mod to move the BF5 filter closer to the camera in an attempt to reduce or perhaps even completely remove the … Continue reading →

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Coronado PST eyepiece holder disassembly part 2

Posted on August 20, 2014 by james

I got brave this evening and disassembled the eyepiece holder to the point I’d reached as described a few days ago. I then examined the BF5 housing and decided that it appeared to fit into the eyepiece holder from the … Continue reading →

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Coronado PST eyepiece holder disassembly

Posted on August 15, 2014 by james

Following on from my thoughts that I might have to move the blocking filter on my modded PST closer to the camera sensor, I decided to take it apart to see what I might be dealing with.  Though I’ve got … Continue reading →

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Another possible PST mod

Posted on August 14, 2014 by james

My PST has been repeatedly modded and now looks like this: (though now with the addition of a motor to the focuser.) I have been pondering of late however on the amount of vignetting that occurs when imaging and what … Continue reading →

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