bambuko

Hi Damnut,

...I'm really wondering if the non laser collimator tool is even worth having if an old film cap does the same job? Seems like I bought a tool which has no real use? Probably should have splashed out for a decent laser.

and how would you use old film cap in the darkness?

with cheshire you can shine red torch on it to do quick collimation at night

as for the laser tools... each to his/her own (I have no plans to get one )

 Mods......

Can we get an "edit" button on here somehow , I hate to commit my spelling gaffes to eternity !

Just use "preview" button and check it before posting (until you get edit option - which on this forum will happen when you reach 250 posts).

Last night I was able to test the modified eypiece and can confirm total success.

Case closed.

TAL makes one (or at least used to make one).

There is one for sale on Astro Buy & Sell (not mine btw), but there is no guarantee that it will fit in your eyepiece?

I never got any reply from Altair Astro to my further emails asking for help (I guess they must have been busy with pre-Christmas rush and assumed that they solved the problem by sending me another eyepiece to try?)

I also got distracted by trying to use another eyepiece - which actually worked very well (eventually )

So my illuminated eyepieces were gathering dust unused and unloved because of difficulties I had... until today when I had a brainwave

Actual reticule is not two pieces of wire, but two scratches on a piece of plastic.

The scratches are on one side of the plastic, so depending on which way it is fitted, reticule can be closer or further away from eyepiece (by the thickness of this piece of plastic).

I quickly took the eyepiece apart and re-arranged one, and here is the result:

Both eyepieces shown had the reticule focused and you can easily see the difference (between x1 and x2).

This should give me  more than enough room to allow me to focus the eyepiece to infinity in the finderscope, which I couldn't do previously (with reticule correctly focused).

I guess a lot of people wouldn't notice this problem because they do not need to correct for being shortsighted by using the focuser? (hence dismissive comments from those who never had any problems ).

I still need good weather to test properly looking at the stars, but... I am reasonably confident about my solution.

ps apologies for no photos of the eyepieces disassembled, but I was in such a hurry that I forgot - hopefully my explanations are clear enough?

I have the same AA finder / guider package. Apart from the lack of instructions to swap out the prism section for the helical focuser I didn't have any problems with it as a finder and illuminated eyepiece. It now serves me well as a guide scope though and once its focused it remains locked in place

Thanks for that Sleepy Kiki,

I guess if you are talking about swapping prism section for a helical focuser than it probably is not exactly the same setup (although the base parts I assume are the same).

Just for clarity this is what I am using:

BTW - is your helical focuser the same as the one used on top 90 deg piece? and is non-rotating or rotating?

Hi,

... I found that once the illuminator was attached to the EP the resistance of the focuser on the supplied diagonal was not enough to keep the EP from rotating the focuser and it constantly goes out of focus. I may take the focuser out and apply much thicker grease to the barrel to resolve this annoying problem.  The other problem is that my finder guider came with a helical focuser for attaching a guide camera, the helical focuser is not a None Rotating type ....

A.G

I had exactly the same experience with mine - in  some position gravity causes eyepiece to rotate in such a way that illuminator hangs down. PITA with eyepiece going out of focus while you using it - the only thing to do is to loosen screw securing eyepiece in focuser and rotate eyepiece and re-focus it again.

I don't know if there is a way to adjust tension in helical focuser?

Focuser is definitely rotating type. It doesn't bother me but I guess might be an issue for someone using it as a guider?

Thank you guys,

It helps, even to know that somebody else didn't have problems

Yes, I had good look at the eyepieces and I have two identical ones from Altair Astro to compare - it would be rather unlucky for both of them to be wrong...

That's the annoying bit about internet buying - it's fine when it works OK, but PITA when things don't quite work.

For what it is worth (bearing in mind my newb status) - my experiences in using one.

I was quite clear that I wanted decent RACI finderscope for my 6" reflector and I was quite impressed with it when it arrived - beautiful piece of kit!

My problem was with focusing of the supplied 23mm eyepiece. It has a ring for focusing of the reticule and I have found that when reticule was sharp I was running out of focus range in the main helical focuser.

It was OK when I tried it in daylight on distant objects, but at night when trying to focus at infinity the focuser was "bottoming out" and running out of adjustment.

Altair Astro very quickly provided another eypiece to compare (thank you for great customer service!!), but I have found that there was no real difference between the two eyepieces.

I could use/easily focus supplied 23mm illuminated eyepieces providing reticule was out of focus.

I could easily use other 1.25" eyepieces with no problems in focusing.

It seems to me that the scope tube would benefit from being shorter by a couple of mm.

It maybe that it is as it is because of all the other options available for this scope (for use as a guide scope etc).

Other thing that I have discovered was that for visual use (and that is what I do) 23mm eypiece giving x10 magnification was possibly not the best one. OK it is aimed at "...astro-imagers who want to centre an object more precisely in the camera field-of-view, yet the field of view is still very large...", but I found it was far better for my type of use with 32mm eyepiece (unfortunately not illuminated, but this may be another DIY project).

I would love to hear opinions of other users, please.

Mine has arrived at long last today and the first thing I found was that the focuser couldn't handle the weight - need to find out quickly how to adjust it.

Lucky I checked in the daytime - there would be some very technical English in use if I discovered it tonight in the darkness

TENTO 10x50 БПЦ Made in USSR almost 30 years old and still going strong.

photo

If you do, then make sure to check availability before buying - I have chosen the seller who took my money and I am still waiting for delivery (almost 6 weeks now), despite the fact that webpage didn't mention any stock problems

thanks for that!

where and when did you buy yours?
I am still waiting for mine (nil stock at the supplier I have chosen))

Every aspiring newb should be made to read this before he parts with the money 

Excellent! and I am looking forward to part II