Camera Hot Shoe for Wixey WR365 Digital Angle Gauge and Level

I have a small refractor telescope with a rotating focuser and I found when using my OSC camera for astrophotography that it was hard to properly frame my shots based on the plans I created using telescopius and also re-aligning my shots from session to session.  This was because it was very hard to get the angle the camera was set on the telescope rotator to match my plan and previous sessions.

I looked around and I could not find any product for a camera hot shoe that would allow me to get a precise angle.  All of the products only helped you to level the camera.

So I looked around for digital angle gauges and found the ‘Wixey WR365 Digital Angle Gauge With Level And Flip Up Display’ on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054RJ7VC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its 0.1 degree accuracy sounded really great so I took a chance and ordered one and cracked it open.  It was very straight forward just 4 screws and then with a little effort I was able to remove the metal plate and magnet inside of it.

From there I made an adapter that fit where the metal plate was that accepted a post with a hot shoe compatible end on it.  To make printing easier I printed the gauge base plate and hot shoe plate separately, then glued them together.  Then I just put the part into the gauge and screwed it back together.

The finished product is a digital angle gauge that I can put into my camera's hot shoe and then adjust the telescopes rotator to my desired angle.  This give me the repeatable results I was looking for to easily setup my camera and frame my target reliably between sessions.

It is also useful when doing daytime photography as well to quickly make sure my camera is level after I put it on the tripod, though not ideal for that as a 2 or 3 axis bubble level is probably more efficient for that use, but it is an option.

Design created in Autodesk Fusion 360 Personal