Back to forums

Saddle orientation

Sky-Watcher CQ350 Pro Equatorial Mount
3 replies•140 views
Michael Gorman avatar
Michael Gorman avatar
My pier adapter plate hasn't come yet so i'm left alone in the basement with my thoughts. 

Anyone else decided to flip the saddle 180 so that the power/data hub connections are in the rear instead of front? Would seem to make more sense for both an SCT or Refractor setup where the camera and such are hanging off the rear. 

The stock front position makes sense for a newt or hyperstar/rasa.
Engaging
Michael Gorman avatar
Michael Gorman avatar
Disregard. I pulled the saddle off to have a look and the way they route the cables its not possible to turn around. Maybe with further changes deeper inside, but wasn't willing to fiddle that much with a new mount.
Noah Tingey avatar
Noah Tingey avatar
With every mount that I've used, you can just slew the dec axis around 180 degrees and then attach your scope so that it's facing forward. Unless your mount has weirdly configured anti-collision settings or absolute encoders, the mount has no idea which direction is the original orientation – it only knows what the last platesolve solution was.

Editing to add: If your mount has a cable that snakes up though it, make sure that cable wont get yanked if rotated too far. It shouldn't with a well-designed mount, but just make sure you don't break anything because of my advice.
Well Written Helpful
Michael Gorman avatar
Michael Gorman avatar
Noah Tingey:
With every mount that I've used, you can just slew the dec axis around 180 degrees and then attach your scope so that it's facing forward. Unless your mount has weirdly configured anti-collision settings or absolute encoders, the mount has no idea which direction is the original orientation -- it only knows what the last platesolve solution was.

Editing to add: If your mount has a cable that snakes up though it, make sure that cable wont get yanked if rotated too far. It shouldn't with a well-designed mount, but just make sure you don't break anything because of my advice.

CQ350 has hard stops on either side of DEC.