WO132 version 3.0: Adding Wide Field Capability
Dates: January 20, 2021 - May 26, 2021
The final configuration
The other side showin the ZWO EAF Focus motor.
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Adding the Sharpstar 61EDphII Scope
For Christmas of 2020, my wife gave me a neat little wide field scope - the Sharpstar 61EDPHII! This little scope came with a Reducer/Flattener and would make a great wide-field astrograph. So I thought about how to use it. I decided that I could replace the Guidescope with this scope. That way, I could decide for a project which scope would be better. In one case, I could have theWilliam Optics acting as the main scope, and the 61EDPHII would be a (very nice) guide scope. But if I needed wide-field capability, I could swap the cameras around. This would turn the William Optics into one of the nicest guide scopes you have ever seen, and the old 61EDPHII would become the main imaging scope.
For this to work, I wanted to have autofocus capability for both scopes. So I added the ZWO EAF focus motor to the 61EDPHII - which fit perfectly.
Showing the old config and the new scope I wanted to mount
I used a very heavy-duty dovetail mount clamp to mount the scope.
To make this all work, I had to change the location of the USB hub to the back of the upper dovetail plate. This required that all cable management efforts would have to be redone.
This change was not simple, as it required that I move the USB Hub of the back of the upper dovetail plate. This also meant that all of the cable management had to be redone. All of this caused a significant change to the balance of the rig. I had to shift the scope around to achieve this, but I still had balance problems. These were caused by the fact that I had TWO focus motors located on one side of the OTA. TO balance this out, I had to add some weights that counter this and achieve 3rd axis balance.
The other interesting aspect of this change is that now I could also run autofocus on my guide camera. In the past, I was never confident that I had achieved the best focus o the guide camera, but now I could have Sequence Generator Pro run an autofocus series on the guide scope, and I could be confident that things were dialed in the right!
The updated Configuration:
Scope: William Optics 132mm f/7 FLT APO Refractor
Focus Motor: Pegasus Astro Focus Cube 2
Cam Rotator: Pegasus Astro Falcon
Guide Scope: Sharpstar 61EDPHII - new
Guide Focus Motor: ZWO EAF - new
Mount: Ioptron CEM 60
Tripod: Ioptron Tri-Pier
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM-Mini
Dew Strips: Dew Not Heater strips for Main and Guide Scopes
Power Dist: Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox
USB Dist: Startech 8 slot USB 3.0 Hub
Polar Alignment Cam Polemaster
