is there a dummy EAF that weighs 277 grams and that has a shaft that spins freely and can be attached to the other coarse/fine knob and has it's own focuser bracket that can overlap the real EAF bracket (or something like that), to counterbalance the EAF?
I used to have a clamp that came with a kit, for counterbalancing my EFW that I thought I might use for EAF counterbalancing, if I could clamp it to the OTA instead of the camera https://astrohutech.store/product/hutech-counterweight-kit-for-cfw/ but I somehow lost the clamp; maybe I accidentally threw it into the trash when I was thinking about one of those Mono vs Color debates.
so, I thought deeply what to do now; I stared at my OTA, looked at every shape and hole, and then, I saw a very simple solution
I found that my OTA rings had threaded holes that match the thread of the screw on the tip of the Hutech weight shaft, so I actually didn't need the clamp
so I was able to do this:
(the weight is on the opposite side of the EAF)
note: I'm forced to keep my EFW either up or down now (relative to 0 position); I don't care so much about framing orientation anymore as long as my guiding stays this good.
before, I could do 5 minute subs and I would have to trash half of them because of bad DEC guiding, now I can do 20 minute subs with my AVX, no problem, no huge DEC jumpiness, nothing gets trashed:
20 minute sub, APS-C, no BXT:
so, I found the solution for my 65PHQ (lucky me), but what would happen if I get another refractor, or an RC or an SCT? I doubt there would be any way to attach the Hutech shaft anywhere on those OTAs in a place that would counterbalance an EAF.
so, is there a dedicated counterweight for this purpose? what is the solution?
and, sorry for the huge images; I would make them smaller if Astrobin had a resizing feature in the posting area
