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Hi guys, I have made a video of how to mount a Primalucelab Sesto Senso focus motor on a true 3" Feather Touch 3215 focuser. I thought some of you might wonder how to use the extra collar you need to mount the motor on to the bigger versions of the FT focusers, and also how to align the motor shaft. Enjoy

Thanks DirkSteele

I think it becomes easier if you do it a couple of times, but yes, HG is easier to use.

So, I have been testing three different kind of lasers, each one is supposed to be the "best" in each category or what you want to call it, the hotech and HG is almost the same, but whit the difference in how you lock it down. The Catseye is very different in how it works. I made a Youtube video of my thoughts https://youtu.be/ERF33hNVieQ What do you think? which one do you use? Regards, Daniel

Hi, i just wanna mention that i have started a youtube channel a couple of months ago. My main focus is to explain how all gear works, collimation, all kind of software that I use etc. Feel free to take a look and i am more than eager to listen to what i can do better to improve my videos, and also tips on what to cover in the upcoming videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm50WzpT1YKCwghW13b6k-g?view_as=subscriber /Daniel

Hi, i just wanna share a in depth review that i made on how the Primalucelab Sesto Senso works, and how i actually runs an autofocus routine with it. you can watch the whole review on my youtube channel here:

Ok, so you don't insert the laser with the lock collar fully backed off, but tightened just so you can insert it in the focuser?

Yea, that might solve the issue. Just to clarify - when you are mentioning the "grooves" - are you talking about the grooves on the laser that the rubber rings are sitting in or the grooves in the focuser for the brass ring that tightens the eyepiece?

Hmm, ok, well that means either that i am doing something wrong or that something in the laser/focuser is affecting the tightening procedure. My procedure is like this - i am first using it in a starlight feathertouch focuser with the clamping thumb screws backed off quite a bit, I put in the Hotech laser fully released in the locking collar, pushing down the laser very firmly towards the focuser and start locking the ring. How ever, i have been thinking of very carefully appy som oil on the rubber rings so that they have the ability to "move" in to right position, could it be that they are to "grippy" on the inside of the draw tube?

Hi, I am trying to collimate my astrpgraph, a TS N-AG10 with a Hotech 2" self centering laser and I am having some questions of the clamping procedure. Each time i am trying to tighten the collar so that the laser would tighten up in the focuser, the laser dot is quite far off the earlier spot the laser hit. I have sience bought a Howie Glatter 2" laser, when i adjust the secondary so that the laser dot hit exactly in the center of the primary dot and change laser to the hotech, the laser dot is about 4-5mm off, if I release the Hotech laser and re-tighten it, the dot will hit somewhere else. I can not just trust the hotech laser - has anyone else experienced the same thing? *Both of the lasers is collimated itself at 5 meters distance with the dots not moving at all. /Daniel

Hi Martin. I think we are on the same track trying to evaluate ccd inspector.. Trying to fine tune my new N-AG10 The spacing of my system was only shown on "real" images, not ccd inspector... maybe on the fwhm values as they are a value on how good focus you have. The focus itself is represented of the background color in the "curvature" in ccd inspector. Black is best, whit is worst. I measured my spacing with a skjutmått. (caliper?) The tilt is just as it sounds, the camera ship in relation to the image field. in my case, the focuser (the starlight feathertouch focuser base has tilt adjustment screws, so it makes it quite easy for me) the curvature is a effect of how good the corrector is doing it´s job, i don't think you could do anything about that other than to get secondary mirror centered correct, and the focuser tilt as good as you can. /Daniel

Thanks for all input guys I had a session in my obsy starting over from scratch. 1. measuring the spider vanes, got the secondary holder centered to 1-2/10th of a millimeter. 2. Insert cheshire and got the rotation of the secondary correct, however, i recognized that the focuser was not centered to the secondary (or so i thought) - it turned out that the secondary was not glued to the holder as precise it could be, it was off by a couple of millimeters. I hope that this not will cause any issues (70mm minor axis) 3. changed the cheshire to the hotech laser collimator and checked everything and indeed the error between the cheshire and laser was much lesser than before. 4. with the laser turned on, i corrected the tilt of the focuser so that the laser beam hit the center mark of my primary. 5. adjust primary to hit the center mark of the laser collimator. 6. repeat cheshire procedure, even more fine tuning of the secondary (because of my adjusted focuser) 7. insert laser collimator and yet again adjust tilt on the focuser tuning in the laser dot to the primary center mark. 8. adjust primary mirror again (we are now in the region of just tenths of millimeters... 9. Put back camera, adjust focus and got it down to 3" fwhm with alot of humid in the air and a primary mirror not even close to ambient temp (looks promising) 10. Clouds rolled in. 11. put a "snus" under my lip and wait out the clouds. 12. found a gap in the clouds, shot apr. 20 images and measured them with ccd... aprox. 2% tilt, just a couple on arc seconds collimation off. Conclusion - as a newbe on newtonians (have been photographing with APOs for almost ten years) i might have found a workflow that actually gets me somewhere. And this was done with a diy cheshire (drilled a hole in a 1,25" cap) I have now ordered a concenter eyepiece.

I have collimated both with the laser and cheshire several times, and each time, after checking with the cheshire, i get rotation error och the secondary (confirmed that it is rotation) I have now laser cut metal shims to be able to rotate the secondary. (it is the three-legged version from telescope service) The laser collimator is collimated.

Yes it is a 1,25" to 2" adapter, but both is using their rubber compression rings, so in theory, it should be dead center. I Will look into the howie glatter ones!

Hi, I would really like to hear your thoughts of the images I have attached. The scope is a 10" f4 native and with my reducer it is f3,4 which i think have nothing to do with this really. The laser collimator is a 2" Hotech with crosshair and it is collimated itself. The laser dots are well aligned but as you can see on the picture taken through my chesire, it seems that the secondary is not properly aligned. According to my own thoughts, it is a rotation issue - as the reflection from the primary is well aligned in X -axis (horizontal) but not in Y-axis (vertical) How much of an impact would this have on the final results through a 3" Corr/red to a atik 460ex with a 17mm diagonal chip? /BR