The Meade 2045 scope came with a very sturdy tripod and motorized mount, but now that CG-5 GoTo mount has been fixed we thought it would be good to try attaching the Meade OTA and use the duo for some deep sky astrophotography.
There are two things needed (rings, rail) to attach an optical tube assembly (OTA) onto the CG-5 mount. We managed to locate what we needed from Orion Telescopes. Orion Telescope carry a lot of hard to find gear at reasonable prices. They are the first place we check when looking for parts.
Since we did not get any manuals with the Meade 2045 when we purchased the scope, we had to attempt the OTA disassembly by trial-and-error. After a careful "once over", it was apparent that the OTA was attached to the fork mount by four hex screws. The general agreement was removing the screws should free the main tube.
After a bit more consideration, we realized that rotating the tube to vertical would give better access to the anchoring screws. We also thought padding the gap was probably a good idea just in case the tube popped off the mount unexpectedly.
Fortunately, our assumptions were correct. The tube came off the mount without incident after the removal of the four screws. It also dawned on us the little black square at the end tube was a tripod mount. It would be simpler to attach the rail to that then to use the rings.
The tripod hole on the rail was standard (1/4" diameter, 20 threads per inch), but needed to be counter-sunk a little deeper so the head would be flush with the bottom of the rail.
Now that the Meade has been equiped with a mounting rail, mounting the scope onto the CG-5 tripod will be a quick and easy task. We hope the sky in Boston clear up soon as we are eager to give this rig a try. And with the new Nikon D90 in the gear rotation, we may put aside one of the D40 bodies and dedicate it for astrophotography use. Anyone know how to remove the IR filter on the Nikon D40 CCD sensor? [Permalink]- Meade 2045 on CG-5
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