danielhigham

I disassembled the stock focuser, cleaned it up, and placed a few strips of teflon tape along the inner surface of the tube, as well as along the sides rack and pinion track to eliminate rotational slop. Feels like a completely different focuser!! Not only does it no longer wobble and rotate, but due to the tighter mating of the draw tube to the focuser, I am able to set the tension much lower to get very smooth fine adjustments without slippage. Thanks again for the suggestion. Much more satisfying at this stage than buying a new focuser. 🙂

I spent too much time trying to find a TELRAD circle graphic that I could print onto acetate for use with paper charts, but was unable to find one. So I made one in MS Word, and I'm sharing it here in case anyone else finds it useful. Instructions are in the document, but basically just resize the image according to your map scale. Prints out nicely onto acetate to help measure and plan hops. Clear skies! -dh telrad circle master.docx

What do you mean by metal inserts? I've also been looking at these, but as you mention, not a drop-in replacement for the current focuser and more or less the same design but made of metal.

Thank you for the very reasonable suggestions. I'm going to see what I can do to clean up the drawtube and maybe use a piece of teflon tape to snug things up a bit.

The focuser in this scope is okay, but I’d like something a bit more precise (and not shiny plastic). Currently, the image slips around a bit as I’m trying to nail in the focus. The scope is 130/650 with a 47mm secondary. Am I crazy for thinking about getting a 2” dual speed focuser for a scope this size? I believe the secondary mirror is large enough. Or should I just find a better 1.25 focuser? I’m not doing any astrophotography, just visual, mostly DSO hunting. Mostly use an 18mm eyepiece.

Thanks for the replies everyone, seems the consensus leans heavily toward the greater eye relief of the SLV!

I have an f/5 Newtonian, and I’m looking to upgrade my 20mm eyepiece for DSO work. I can get the Vixen SLV 20mm or the TV Plössl 20mm for the same price. Both have the same 50° aFOV; the Vixen slightly more eye relief (20mm vs 14; I prefer to wear glasses). Which would you pick and why?