Mounting a Nighthawk NG to a Meade 10" SCT

I want to mount a Stellarvue Nighthawk to my 10" SCT to use as a finder for star hopping and utilize my mounts tracking. Since the Nighthawk weighs 6.2lbs itself I'm a little worried about overtaxing the mount. Once you add a dovetail bar, clamps, and mounting rings it will add a little over 10lbs. I only plan on using this for visual observation and not imaging. I have a counterweight system which I can use to help balance the SCT to help relieve strain on the tracking motors but they would add even more weight.

So my question is ... Have any of you done this already?, Is it feasible?, and is there a lower weight way of mounting this that I'm missing?

Any info would be appreciated.

Fred

Fred,

Im having a similar problem with my 12" Meade SCT and my CI700 mount. The Nighthawk is a beast, and when you add the losmandy dovetail, etc. it adds up. I am hoping the guys on the CI700 group can help me out on this one....Anyway....

Do you have the fork arm mount? If so, you could try to add a counterweight dovetail bar (like scopestuff, etc...). However, my sense is that they are probably intended for balancing loads less than 3 - 5 lbs, althouhg this is not to say that someone out there hasn't done this.

If you have an GEM, then check your mount's capacity and maybe just ad more counterwieghts.

The heart of the problem is that Nighthawk is HEAVY. However, most other 80mm scopes are not less than 2/3 of the weight. For example, on the real low end, the SV 80mm Superfinder is about 2.5 lbs, and I don't think these compare optically to the Nighthawk (no focuser,single lense, etc). Most 80mms will be around 4 lbs.

Best trick might be to figure out a different way to mount it w/o the losmandy plate...you could save maybe 1 pound or 2 net.

Hope these ramblings help.

I talked with the Meade representative at NEAF on Saturday. He assured me that the drive system could support up to twice the weight of the 10" OTA which is 36lbs. The catch is that it has to be mounted on center and counterweights used to at least semi balance the tube front to back.
The objective end of the Nighthawk actually helps this balance and I only need an additional 2lb counterweight instead of the 6lbs to balance. It worked fine last night for the limited time there was a hole in the clouds here.
I used a ADM Mini Dovetail System which only weighs 2.5lbs including the rings.

So In case anyone is wondering ... YES you can mount a Nighthawk NG on a Meade 10" SCT.

Fred