Experiences with STF-8300 and SX filter wheel+Autoguider

Hi,

I plan to buy a STF-8300 camera to replace my SX ICX285 based camera. But I want to keep my SX filter wheel and CoStar autoguider. And I fear that I could not focus both camera together with this combo. Does anyone had experiences with this set-up ?

Clear Sky

Fred

 

The SX wheel is 25mm thick . The SBIG wheel is 19 mm. It would really depend on the custom adapters that were made for it.
Given the cost it might be cheaper to get the SBIG filter wheel and continue to use the SX autoguider. Hopefully a user has done this. You can also ask the SBIG yahoo group as well.
There are 7500 member on that list.

Regards
Tim

 

That's Tim, my point is that SBIG filter wheel cannot hold mounted 50.8 filters

Regards

Fred

 

Hi Fred,

Just to clarify a few things here, are you using the Starlight Xpress off axis guider for this setup? Is your camera the SX Trius-SX9C and does your filter wheel use the plate that mounts directly to the camera or do you have a t-ring on the back of your filter wheel followed by the camera having a "tip-tilt" t-ring on it?

I am assuming you are using this off axis guider as part of the camera/filter wheel/off axis guider package, but I just want to make sure so that I can dig into the details and make certain you will be able to reach focus for both cameras.

Regards,
Eric

 

Hi Eric,

My optical - mechanical - train is :

AP Traveler + AP focal reducer + Baader Photo Adapter (from good old TP 2415 Ages ) + Off Axis Guider from SX (fitted with CoStar Camera) + Universal (old ) SX filter wheel - fitted with 2" mounted baader filters + SXVR-H9 camera.

Resulting focal length is about 520mm.

This is NOT the combo with mini filter wheel.

Regards

Fred

 

Hi Fred,

The back focus taken up by the SX SXVR-H9 is 17 +/-1mm while the back focus taken up by a SBIG STF-8300 camera is 17.5mm. I would suggest looking at your current setup and determining if you can move your CoStar auto guider position on the off axis guider by +/-1mm. All you are doing here is making sure you are not at the end of the travel for focusing your CoStar. So long as you can indeed move the CoStar by +/-1mm then you should be able to achieve focus when you swap out your SXVR-H9 for a STF-8300. The same applies to both the monochrome and color versions of the STF-8300 since they both take up the same amount of back focus in your optical train.

Regards,
Eric

 

Hi Eric,

It seems that there is enough room to focus both camera.

Regards

Fred