Filter drawers for ZWO ASI cameras are now available from Astrodevice. The filter drawers are designed to be mounted on ZWO ASI cameras with 17.5mm backfocus to the Celestron RASA 8 telescope and can also be used with other telescopes as explained on the company’s website. Depending on the type of camera and how you want to mount the drawer on your telescope will determine the specific drawer for your application.
The filter drawers support the following cameras:
– ZWO ASI 2400 MC Pro
– ZWO ASI 2600 MM/MC Pro
– ZWO ASI 6200 MM/MC Pro
– ZWO ASI 071 MC Pro
The filter drawers for ZWO ASI cameras are made utilizing 3D printing from carbon fiber reinforced material. They are equipped with two magnetic sliders, a blind slider for making dark frames and a magnetic key for easy operation in the dark.
As the Astrodevice team notes, “The drawers are designed for use with ZWO ASI cameras having 17.5 mm backfocus. These are characteristic cameras, equipped with a black tilt plate on the front. ZWO manufactures these cameras in two sizes: 90 mm housing diameter and 86 mm housing diameter. To be able to mount drawers on both types of cameras, it became necessary to make them in two diameters – wider and narrower. The 90 mm cameras are: ASI 2400 MC Pro, ASI 2600 MM/MC Pro and ASI 6200 MM/MC Pro and the 86 mm cameras is the ASI 071 MC Pro.
Each of the Astrodevice filter drawers for ZWO ASI cameras (wider and narrower) are available in two variants:
– With M42 mounting thread allowing to universally mount it to existing adapters.
– With its own built-in nut M87, allowing to screw the drawer directly onto the telescope.
Both the M87 and M42 versions have their own special, distinctive features and Astrodevice provides a tutorial on its website on which should work for your specific application.
The specific Astrodevice filter drawers for ZWO ASI cameras designations are:
– FD 900 M42: filter drawer having M42 external thread, for 90 mm cameras.
– FD 900 M87: Filter drawer having M87 external thread, for 90 mm cameras.
– FD 860 M42: Filter drawer having M42 external thread, for 86 mm cameras.
– FD 860 M87: Filter drawer having M87 external thread, for 86 mm cameras.
As the Astrodevice team also notes, “In the case of the RASA 8, the cameras 17.5mm backfocus gives very little room to mount any adapter, let alone a filter drawer. To deal with this limitation, we took advantage of the fact that the original tilt plate can be removed from the camera, gaining an additional 5mm of space. In exchange the drawer is equipped with its own tilt tuning system. In practice, it’s very simple: to mount the filter drawer, you will first need to unscrew the original black tilt plate from your camera. It is attached to the housing with three screws. It’s pretty straightforward and exact instructions with step-by-step photos are included in the drawer manual. Then just screw on the drawer, which has its own tilt adjustment mechanism.”
Each of the filter drawers for ZWO ASI cameras are equipped with special factory-calibrated pairs of screws that ensure virtually perfect parallelism of the front and back drawer planes. Thanks to them, any possible dimensional inaccuracy is eliminated to the nearest hundredth of a millimeter. In addition to the factory calibration, the user has the opportunity to carry it out again using special screws included in the set.
The filter sliders are held in the drawer by special side magnets and removing the slider is facilitated by a special magnetic key included in the set. The whole set is complemented by a blind filter that allows you to make dark frames without removing the camera and a special side blinder, which cuts off any false light coming from the side.
The drawer provides a backfocus of 28.73mm, which is exactly what Celestron recommends for the RASA 8.
As the Astrodevice team comments., “Note, that this is the default recommended distance for H-alpha, S-II and O-III narrowband filters or possibly complex narrowband filters such as NBZ, Triad Ultra Quad-Band or similar. For broadband filters such as R, G, B or a situation where you are not using any filter at all, the effective telescope backfocus shortens. We have an article on our website to learn more about this issue. For our drawers, you can adjust the backfocus using primarily the filter combination method, which is also explained on our website.”
You can learn more about Astrodevice’s filter drawers for ZWO ASI cameras here.
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