Dave NZ South Island

I bought a Moonlite CF 2.5" Focuser for my 120ED back in 2013 and although it is very well made it still slips when I attach a Canon 60D for imaging. Despite my efforts at adjustment I can not achieve a compromise between smooth action and weight capacity. In fact, when I adjust the two grub screws to increase load to the non-slip point then the fine focus knob becomes redundant and just turns without moving the drawtube; so I can only use the coarse focus knob I took it up with Moonlite and they offered an upgrade for it for US$100 (required sending it in which is big cost from New Zealand to and fro) so I just gave up as I don't want to be without a focuser and will now resort to tuning my old Crayford that came with the 120ED as it is relatively easy to strip and tune. The main issue seems to be lack of contact surface with the focuser shaft and simply 'honing' the flat section to get it dead flat (it is slightly concave) with an oilstone appears to give much improved grip and responsive tension control.

Thanks Mark, Recently my wife and I have taken to Prime Focus imaging of DSO's (just learning) using my 120ED and a Canon 60D. Must say we were happy with results especially on our Pleiades, the Carina and the Tarantula nebula etc. The Nebula NGC 2070 (Tarantula) I attached. This is unprocessed and our first effort at DSO imaging. I actually found it a lot easier to get the hang of compared with planetary imaging. Although it was not really visible in the scope the longer exposure time (used 30 secs at ISO 800 I think) shows the detail and we were blown away with the colour! I just bought a t - ring adapter for my 2.5 X 1.25" Powermate to attach to the DSRR and have tried it in daylight with good results on distant cattle. Will see how it goes with our black skies. We are fortunate enough to have a small farm here in South Island not many people and virtually zero light pollution but the trade off is mountains - means we often have to wait for target objects to get high enough.

Owned a Skywatcher Black Diamond 120ED for several years now and it is an excellent scope all round for both eyepiece viewing and imaging. Sure you won't get the huge visuals you get on planets with a big SCT with FL >2000 but the sharpness of the images makes up for that. All in I spent many nights imaging Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with my 120ED and my 9.25" SCT and the images I processed always appeared to have the edge on sharpness with the refractor (to get the best out of them I fitted Moonlight and Feathertouch focusers respectively)