AdeKing

I've been rather busy for the last month or so, but have some spare time coming up during which I hope to make some progress on the restoration of this Dob. I have a replacement secondary mirror, and all of the parts to make a new spider assembly, but the first thing that I want to do is to fit a standard Skywatcher 2" crayford focuser to replace the rather basic helical focuser that is currently attached. However, how is the best way to go about enlarging the hole in the tube for the 2" focuser? As I'm cutting the tube, I really don't want to make a mess of it so I was wondering what the best approach is. My plan was to carefully measure out and mark from the current hole where the new hole needs to be then carefully drill some closely spaced holes around the circumference of the new diameter and smooth off the resulting rough edges with a file. My main worry is that the new focuser won't have enough outward travel to reach focus, but I assume that this can be corrected easily enough with extension tubes. Does the above sound like a sensible approach, or is there another way that is easier? If I was drilling the hole from scratch, I thought that a hole saw attachment for a drill might be a good idea, but as I'm enlarging an existing hole I figured that drilling closely spaced holes might be a good start. Any ideas, suggestions or pointers as to where I could go catastrophically wrong? Ade

I have the exact same scope, and by the sounds of it an almost identical set of most often used eyepieces to @Charic. My most used eyepices are a 24mm (the ES 68 degree 24mm), the BST Starguider 12mm and the BST Starguider 8mm, with the 32mm Panaview being deployed occasionally. I also have a Baader Morpheus 14mm which has a lovely 74 degree AFOV, but the extra 15x that the 12mm gives is always welcomed. I have the whole set of BSTs, except for the 25mm and for me they represent money well spent. Enjoy your time with the Skyliner 200p. Ade

I'm no expert but 2616A could possibly indicate a David Hinds mirror. On my 12" Dark Star restoration thread I was told that David Hinds used to etch a small number followed by A or B. Unfortunately mine didnt have that though.

Nice solution, I've been thinking about doing similar with the 12" Dark Star Dob that I'm renovating, so its nice to see that someone else has done the same. Good luck with finding a suitable counterweight. Though I think that the suggestion of Cast Iron Kitchen Weights made by @John is a good one. I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only one with a table of magnifications, FOVs, and a reminder of how the Newt flips what you're looking at taped to my OTA. Ade

I have the EQ5 with the enhanced dual axis drives which is definitely 6v. The 4x D cells should last for ages but I've just got myself a 6v 3.3 Ah NIMH rechargeable RC battery pack which should last for even longer. Ade

Really pleased that you got a bargain from Astroboot and we're happy when it arrived. Ade

PM Sent

I'm not sure about the v4 handsets, but if you have a v3 handset and are using a USB to serial converter then you will most likely need to change the interface speed on the handset to Lo. To do this press "Setup" as you plug in the power and then "Lo" will appear on the handset screen. Be patient though, as it will take ages to update in "Lo" mode. Similar problem described on this thread:

This is looking really good, I'm enjoying the thread and I'm taking loads of notes that I can refer to when I do my own Truss Tube build in the not too distant future.

Last night I attempted to centre-spot the primary mirror of my SW Explorer 150P using the (very expensive for what it is) Catseye spotting template and reflective hotspot. The template was the official version purchased from FLO and not the downloaded version from the Catseye website which is apparently not scales for accurate printing. However, I have to admit to rushing to finish the job and didn't properly measure the diameter of the primary, assuming of course that a 6" (150mm) mirror would be 152mm in diameter (152.4mm to be precise as that is the conversion from 6" inches to mm, and is the diameter that the 6" circle on the template measured, well its actually more like 152.5mm but who can tell the difference between 0.4mm and 0.5mm on a standard ruler). However, getting a results where the centre-spot appeared to be off-centre, I measured the diameter of the primary in my 150P and found it to actually only be 147mm in diameter (so 5.4mm smaller than the 6" diameter ring on the template). I'm blaming nobody but myself for this, as I rushed to finish the job and didn't check everything properly first, but I was quite surprised to find that the mirror is only 147mm in diameter, as all of the Skywatcher specs state that the optical diameter is 150mm. The problem is that I now feel that the money I've spent on the Catseye Spotting Template has been completely wasted is it doesn't have a ring of 147mm diameter, so I'll be going to staples on the way home for some acetate to make up my own template. Grrrrr, very frustrating and I will know MUCH better for next time. Ade

@astronymonkey you are correct, the secondary had been re-fitted the wrong way around, and was 180 degrees out as you pointed out. I have been kindly donated a secondary mirror by @andrew s which is due to be fitted shortly, but I haven'd yet had time to remove all of the previous glue from the secondary holder. As the holder is hollow, I'm also toying with the idea of sticking an aluminium plate to the secondary holder so that I can use three larger contact areas to attach the secondary to the holder. Given that the secondary appears to have previously parted company with the the holder, I'll also be employing a fall-arrest system so that if the secondary becomes un-stuck then it doesn't fall and hit the primary. Ade

Hi Paul, Thats a very kind offer, and I've already sent you a PM. Regards, Ade

PM Sent

@quokka let us know how you get on with it. Ade

I also have a Morpheus, but the 14mm and I love it, and also use it in a 200p Skyliner. However, as the previous posts have mentioned, it took me a bit of practice to find the correct eye position relative to my other eyepieces, which are mainly the BST Starguiders together with an ES 24mm and Skywatcher Panaview 32mm. You'll get there if you persevere. Ade