Update to the ST-80 mount problem

My big complaint with the Orion ShortTube-80 refractor has been the mount I have it on. (See the previous post.) I just spent an hour or two fooling around with it on one type of binocular mount which didn’t work well for this purpose, even though it is great for binoculars. I then suddenly got a hot flash. I moved it to an old Vista binocular mount which is of a design I generally don’t like and guess what? It performs beautifully this way! Can’t wait for dark skies to give it a real trial!

Here’s why. The binocular mounts I generally don’t like are the ones that are basically fore-and-aft oriented. That is, they use a parallelogram, but they mount the binocular on one end so you are looking at the counterweight which is on the other end. That is the major axis of the parallelogram goes from your eye towards whatever you are looking at. (Take a look at the Orion “Paragon” mount. It works this way. )

This does move the binocular away from the tripod and give you sme advantages in pointing it at something and being able to raise and lower the eyepieces to accommodate sitting or standing or different heights of different observers. But either sitting or standing, when using this type of mount you have to bend you neck in a way that is, well, a pain in the neck! And you really can’t look much higher than 60 degrees.

Other types of binocular mounts provide a different holder for the binocular so the counter weight – and major axis of the parallelogram, goes off to your side – it is at a 90-degree angle to you. This means you can sit to one side of the tripod in a chair or lounge - lie down if you like – but in any event, adjust your body so that you are looking straight into the binoculars without bending your neck. Now that’s comfortable.

But back to the ST-80. It has to use either a 45-degree or 90-degree diagonal. (Won’t come to focus if used straight through. At first that bothered me. But putt it on the fore-and-after kind of mount and suddenly that mount becomes a wonderful tool – at least for what I am trying to accomplish. I don’t want to glance at something – I want to study it. That means I want to sit down and be comfortable. Using the ST-80 on this kind of mount means you can put the tripod quite low – so it is most stable – and you sit in a comfortable chair and aim the telescope anywhere from horizon to zenith while using it comfortably. You do not have to make serious adjustments to the chair. You adjust the scope so the eyepiece is at a comfortable height for you – point it somewhere else and it stays pointed correctly while you smoothly and quickly readjust the height of the eyepiece to once again make it comfortable for you.

This is all possible because of the diagonal. I haven’t tried it with a 45-degree diagonal. I don’t think that would be quite as versatile. With a 90-degree it is great!

Update to the update! January 20, 2006 - Little window in the clouds between 6:15 and 6:45 pm and here's what i learned.

1. I may need to put a right angle finder on the ST-80 - and in terms of the cost of the scope, that's an expensive addition. I'm going to play with alternatives. It just may be a matter of getting the scope higher for sighting along the tube - maybe a red dot approach - but with a 25mm eyepiece I did find it difficult to locate objects, though I did eventually find them and it worked nicely to sit there and use it this way.

2. However, if I have the ST-80 and I have a pair of 80mm binos on Pete's pipe mount, I'm going to use the pipe mount. Why? because two eyes are better than one and it is more natural to lie down and look up, than it is to look down in order to look up. So using the pipe mount with an adjustable beach chair and the 16X50mm binos was more satisfying during this brief trial than using the ST-80. (Objects viewed were M45 and M42, with a quick check of M35 with the 50mm, but it was very faint. (Lot of high cloud around, too.)