Focuser Upgrade for Evostar

[David Smith]

I've had my eye on replacing the focuser on my Evostar 120 for some time now and as I received some FLO gift vouchers for Christmas / Birthday I decided to finally get on with it. I went for the Skywatcher Dual Speed Crayford  as I knew it was a guaranteed fit and had seen good feedback. Contacted FLO who said they could source it for me and it arrived this morning.

It arrived double boxed, wrapped in cellophane, bubble wrap and foam and hence there was no evidence of damage. Replacing the original focuser was a snap, undo three screws, drop out the old focuser, insert the new one and tighten the new screws. My kind of DIY!

 

Side by side with the old one. Note the slightly melted dust plug in the old one, that's what happens when you take out the Ca-K wedge and forget to cover the objective

 

Some more pics before install. Nice little cap to cover the 10:1 drive included. Both the drawtube and 1.25" adaptor have a compression ring fitting, major improvement over the 2-screw mechanism on the standard focuser.

 

And finally installed in the scope.

 

The whole thing rotates when you loosen the thumb screw on the top side, a real bonus as previously I had to rotate the tube in the rings which has lead to some scratches on the OTA. Plugged in the diagonal and Ca-K wedge which initially caused the draw tube to slip but this was soon corrected with a part-turn of the hex bolt on the underside. Might swap this out for a thumb screw at some stage so I can fine tune depending on the loading without having to find a hex key. There are various other screws and bolts the function of which I have no idea yet but I think I have the important stuff down.

 

Had a brief first light as the Sun was still just about high enough (and cloud free ) for me to grab a quick white light view. First impressions very positive and definitely would recommend so far.

[DRT]

I reluctantly sold one of these recently, Dave, as I reduced the number of refractors I own and it wasn't getting used. I must say that for the price this is one of the best dual-speed focusers I have used. Very solid and a nice smooth action. They also have the advantage of looking pretty cool

Nice upgrade - I hope you enjoy it.

[David Smith]

Thanks Derek. Yes, I saw yours go via classifieds and was tempted at the time but could not really justify the spend during the holiday season.

[DevonSkies]

Thanks for posting those pics. I'd be tempted to fit one of these to my ST102, but it would cost nearly as much as the scope!

[David Smith]

To be fair I got the Evostar for about £200 so this was more than 50% of the cost but this scope has become my solar work horse so I felt it was worth it.

[John]

I've recently fitted one of those to an Evostar 150mm F/8. Seems a good focuser for the £'s.

Where are you going to put the finder after your upgrade ?

I'm probably going to use a Rigel Quikfinder on the tube of the scope.

 

[David Smith]

For the most part I use this scope for solar visual and imaging and don't need a finder. I do use it occasionally for night time work (some lunar imaging etc) in which case I generally just use my Revelation 32mm plossl as a "widefield" finder. My main nighttime scope is my Revelation dob and that has both a 9x50 finder and RDF so is suitably equipped for the job.

 

The Rigel QuikFinder does look like a good option though if I change my mind.

[xtreemchaos]

very nice mate, its a big step up from the one ive got on my ed80, might go for one myself. it looks the bizz.charl.