Balance of an ETX-70 due to camera

Folks,
Do any of you that do astrophotography with an ETX-70 have a counter-balance in place to balance the camera?? What is it, where do I get it etc. Or, if I didn't seem to need one, would the gears not be over-compromised with the weight of the camera??

Seanie.

Seanie,

There are some nifty home-made counterweights described on Weasner's ETX site. See under "Some Technical Tips": www.weasner.com/etx/astrophotography/toc.html

Seán

Seanie,
I got the counter balance weights near the botom of this lin.
www.scopetronix.com/etx60acc.htm

Works well with the 300D.

Thanks seanl. There are many rudimentary designs in there!

Dave, is that counterweight system good enough to have the slr at the focal end?

Seanie,
it is good enough for that, but you'll need to have the camera on a polar wedge to be able to point it at a high altitude, otherwise the scope base gets in the cameras way.,

Seanie,
it is good enough for that, but you'll need to have the camera on a polar wedge to be able to point it at a high altitude, otherwise the scope base gets in the cameras way.,

Yeah, one of the most stupid design flaws I have ever seen! I am considering manufacturing one of them for this scope, just create a 52 degree angled metal wedge to fix onto the tripod. That should be fun... :roll:


...unless Dave McDonald gave me a "loan" of his AP1200 mount???