Christmas Project - Refurbished 10" Reflector

[steppenwolf]

In between entertaining friends and family and all the other things we tend to do over the Christmas period, I managed to find time to refurbish my Sky-Watcher 10" Newtonian.

The original rack and pinion focuser on this telescope was always a bit rough and ready especially with regard to image shift when changing focus direction and a move to off-axis guiding meant that I needed a lower profile focuser to allow the correct spacings for use with my Baader coma corrector. So, the original focuser was ditched in favour of a nice new Baader Steeltrack focuser from FLO.

With the whole telescope taken apart for the drilling of the new focuser mounting holes, now seemed like a good time to flock the inside of the tube with D-C-Fix flocking paper (available from FLO).

I've had the telescope since I started astronomy (late 2004) so I also gave the primary and secondary mirrors their first clean as I noted that as well as the dust that I wasn't worried about, there was also a tiny stain on the primary and that did concern me.

The whole lot is now re-assembled, collimated (and confirmed with both my calibrated laser collimator and a conventional Cheshire eyepiece) awaiting some decent weather and a suitable target (probably M78).

[Moonshane]

very nice Steve. the baader focusers look superb.

how have you fixed the focuser base? it looks like there's something else there apart from the base plate itself?

[barkis]

Looks really nice Steve.

The low profile focuser looks cushty too .

Time, (and money) well spent.

Hope the sky plays nice for you soon maty.

Ron.

[David Smith]

Looks really nice. Wish I was confident about tackling such tasks - the thought of drilling holes in my scope .

Hope it pays dividends for you.

David

[steppenwolf]

how have you fixed the focuser base? it looks like there's something else there apart from the base plate itself?

The black 'base' on the tube itself is a fillet made from the flocking material as the original Sky-Watcher hole was much bigger than that required for a 2" drawtube (their focuser housing had a circular section that fitted inside the tube wall).

The inevitable gap between the optical tube wall and the centre of the focuser's base was filled with black packing foam to make a light and dust seal and I extended the flocking material fillet all the way under the new focuser leaving just a hole in the centre for the drawtube to pass through.

I have more pictures if anyone wants to see the gory details!

[Jessun]

That looks very nice! I'm sure it will be worth the effort! Good luck on M78 :-)

[Moonshane]

I have more pictures if anyone wants to see the gory details!

yes please Steve!

[Psychobilly]

Nice job Steve

[Earl]

I have been sorting out an adapter so I can use the original skywatcher plate and put the badder into that.

[Gina]

Nice neat job Steve and that Steeltrack looks superb

[steppenwolf]

I have been sorting out an adapter so I can use the original skywatcher plate and put the badder into that.

I thought about this approach but decided that I would be better off going for the simplest approach. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how substantial the SW baseplate was so I can see that it would make for a good support structure.

[steppenwolf]

yes please Steve!

Ok, More images:-

Image 1 - Trial fit showing original hole is too large to be covered by the new focuser's base

Image 2 - Flock material stuck to OTA and to the back of the internal flocking to double up on strength with a hole cut out for the focuser draw tube. Note the slight 'dishing' of the flock indicating the outline of the original focuser hole

Image 3 - Black foam 'spacer' cut out to fit base of the new focuser with a matching hole to that in the flock fillet shown in image 2

[Astrokev]

Excellent job Steve. I agree, the Steeltrack looks superb.