Need a little Info??

hi, here's what i want to do....

i have a 8" cave astrolla telescope, i also have a meade ds-60, i want to piggy back the meade on the cave, and use it as a kind of bigger finder scope..

can anyone point me in the direction as to where i can find rings to mount it to the cave? kind of like the rings that hold the cave 8x50 finder that came on it, with the 3 "set screws" for lining it up. the rings i would need would be like 4 1/2- 5" in diameter to fit the meade. are there such available? and what the cost of rings like these, im on a TIGHT budget.

TIA.

doug.

Anybody?

>>>can anyone point me in the direction as to where i can find rings to mount it to the cave? kind of like the rings that hold the cave 8x50 finder that came on it, with the 3 "set screws" for lining it up. the rings i would need would be like 4 1/2- 5" in diameter to fit the meade. are there such available? and what the cost of rings like these, im on a TIGHT budget.

TIA.

doug.
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Doug:

If you are handy with tools, you could modify some oversized Orion rings to work. They are generally around $20. You need to do a search on "RINGS" to find them.

www.scopestuff.com has some rings that are modified to work with "guidescopes" but you will still have to figure out how to mount them to the scope.

If your DS-60 has focal length of 700mm or so, it will probably be much help as a finder, the field of view will just be too narrow and the improvement over the 8x50 is not much aperture wise.

If you don't have an eyepiece that allows you to maximize the FOV of the cave, then that would be the route I would suggest. For a 1.25 inch focuser, that could be a decent quality 32mm Plossl. For a 2 inch focuser, that could be any number of eyepieces, the GSO SuperView 42mm is available used on AM for around $40.

What is the focal length of your scope? What size focuser does it use??

Jon

Try Parks, and University Optics. Both have Rings for EQ - Newts....University would be cheaper probably.

I advise against this. The DS-60 is too heavy to
make a reasonable finder, and focal length is
too long for a finder scope. It will be difficult
to find anything in it. You are much better off
with the original 8x50 finder. Also every extra hole
drilled in the Cave takes $50 - $100 off the
collector value, at least in my view.