External focuser for EdgeHD 8

[souls33k3r]

1 minute ago, SyedT said:

Considering the collimation is holding and will be better retained with the original screws, I might just return the Bob's Knobs to be honest.

Your account will take a hit either way, it's a shame the adapters cost extra. I didn't bother getting the M56 adapter for the camera side as I already had the F56-F54 adapter lying around, which helped to bring costs down. Anyway, I've done my job by making the choice even more difficult for you, so good luck!   

Yeah thanks buddy 🤣 I surely will have to think about this. Not discounting it but yeah the extras and for what they're worth is just daylight robbery regardless of how well built this thing is. 

Any way, was literally trolling Primaluce's website and found this spiel which makes me wonder how on earth you're still getting round stars even in the edge. 

[SyedT]

1 hour ago, souls33k3r said:

Yeah thanks buddy 🤣 I surely will have to think about this. Not discounting it but yeah the extras and for what they're worth is just daylight robbery regardless of how well built this thing is. 

Any way, was literally trolling Primaluce's website and found this spiel which makes me wonder how on earth you're still getting round stars even in the edge. 

I'm just as clueless, but not complaining!

[SyedT]

On 08/04/2020 at 23:44, souls33k3r said:

Yeah thanks buddy 🤣 I surely will have to think about this. Not discounting it but yeah the extras and for what they're worth is just daylight robbery regardless of how well built this thing is. 

Any way, was literally trolling Primaluce's website and found this spiel which makes me wonder how on earth you're still getting round stars even in the edge. 

 

Here's the stacked image with the 0.7x reducer (60x60s each of RGB). Cropped by approx. 300 pixels, mainly for centering and edge artefact reasons. Stars look OK!

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by SyedT

[souls33k3r]

7 hours ago, SyedT said:

Here's the stacked image with the 0.7x reducer (60x60s each of RGB). Cropped by approx. 300 pixels, mainly for centering and edge artefact reasons. Stars look OK!

 

Ok the pixel peeper came out in me. Superb image and stars do look OK but if you start to pixel peep like me, you will notice that the corner stars do indicate that the spacing is slightly off but I wouldn't be able to tell it is THAT off to be an issue. That's just great result and a massive plus for the Essato. 

[SyedT]

On 11/04/2020 at 01:21, souls33k3r said:

Ok the pixel peeper came out in me. Superb image and stars do look OK but if you start to pixel peep like me, you will notice that the corner stars do indicate that the spacing is slightly off but I wouldn't be able to tell it is THAT off to be an issue. That's just great result and a massive plus for the Essato. 

I did look into that and I'm not convinced that it's due to the optics, seems more like tilt. If the spacing is excessive then the stars should show a radial pattern i.e. circumferential around the centre, whereas this shows more of an outward elongation most pronounced on the right side. The flats I've taken also show most vignetting at the top right corner which would fit. Plus the seeing hasn't been great and that does throw star shapes off. I'll have a play around with the connection between the 490EX and EFW2 and see if that makes a difference. I'm fairly happy with it as a trade-off for consistent autofocusing though!

[AndyThilo]

I'm considering the ESATTO, seems like a great solution and far cheaper than a Moonlite with motor. Only thing is I'd have to get an Orion TOAG to replace my Celestron OAG to save backfocus. 

What's the general consensus on the ESATTO with and without a reducer on the Edge 8"? 

[xthestreams]

16 hours ago, AndyThilo said:

I'm considering the ESATTO, seems like a great solution and far cheaper than a Moonlite with motor. Only thing is I'd have to get an Orion TOAG to replace my Celestron OAG to save backfocus. 

What's the general consensus on the ESATTO with and without a reducer on the Edge 8"? 

Cheaper? The ESATTO seems way more expensive to me here in Oz - nearly twice the price (but to be fair I am assuming that's not including the hokey controller from ML and using a Pegasus UPBV2 to control directly, so umm, maybe it IS about the same after all - skulks away.....

 

[Richie092]

Just going through the research on this myself for my 8HD what did you decide on #souls33k3r ?

The Essatto looks lovely. For now I am "mainly" going to use for visual and would like a nicer focuser, imaging with it is deff in the pipeline though.

[souls33k3r]

3 hours ago, Richie092 said:

Just going through the research on this myself for my 8HD what did you decide on #souls33k3r ?

The Essatto looks lovely. For now I am "mainly" going to use for visual and would like a nicer focuser, imaging with it is deff in the pipeline though.

Life got in the way, a series of unfortunate events meant that I had put all of this to the sideline for the time being and everything became meaningless.

By the time I got my life back on track, I needed a distraction and ended up playing with the Lakeside focuser that I had which was originally installed on the focuser knob. Turns out, a bit of playing around with it is getting me the perfect focus that I needed. 

I might still end up buying something else but for now, I'll happily image away with the lakeside focuser. 

Hope this helps mate but Essato was a real contender when I was seriously looking in to it. SyedT is a great advocate of the device

[ollypenrice]

I have a Moonlite but don't use it. For imaging it is, in my view, a joke. A smooth steel roller runs on a shiny anodised drawtube. Come now, how is that meant to work? Baader have gone through two iterations to improve on that, firstly with the steeltrack (coarse steel strip replaces shiny drawtube) and then diamond (coarse industrial diamond strip replaces coarse steel strip.) The Moonlite  just demonstrates that you can sell anything if it's finished in pretty anodised colours. Lovely on a Dob, smooth as you like and always horizontal. I wouldn't use one anywhere else.

Olly

[AndyThilo]

Just now, ollypenrice said:

I have a Moonlite but don't use it. For imaging it is, in my view, a joke. A smooth steel roller runs on a shiny anodised drawtube. Come now, how is that meant to work? Baader have gone through two iterations to improve on that, firstly with the steeltrack (coarse steel strip replaces shiny drawtube) and then diamond (coarse industrial diamond strip replaces coarse steel strip.) The Moonlite  just demonstrates that you can sell anything if it's finished in pretty anodised colours. Lovely on a Dob, smooth as you like and always horizontal. I wouldn't use one anywhere else.

Olly

But the Moonlite is the only one that lets you use the reducer? Well the CHL version anyway

[johninderby]

deleted

Edited August 17, 2020 by johninderby

[Richie092]

Thanks for the replies. 
 

it’s looking like the Essato is in the lead. 
 

Might get have to sell some stuff to fund it though. 

[souls33k3r]

5 minutes ago, Richie092 said:

Thanks for the replies. 
 

it’s looking like the Essato is in the lead. 
 

Might get have to sell some stuff to fund it though. 

Good luck mate. It's never an easy decision

[Stuart1971]

12 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I have a Moonlite but don't use it. For imaging it is, in my view, a joke. A smooth steel roller runs on a shiny anodised drawtube. Come now, how is that meant to work? Baader have gone through two iterations to improve on that, firstly with the steeltrack (coarse steel strip replaces shiny drawtube) and then diamond (coarse industrial diamond strip replaces coarse steel strip.) The Moonlite  just demonstrates that you can sell anything if it's finished in pretty anodised colours. Lovely on a Dob, smooth as you like and always horizontal. I wouldn't use one anywhere else.

Olly

The smooth design works beautifully well on the Feathertouch range, with no slip whatsoever, and superb holding power too..... 🤔👍

[Richie092]

18 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Good luck mate. It's never an easy decision

You are not wrong. Will post up on what I decide but in the meantime stay well.

[souls33k3r]

5 hours ago, Richie092 said:

You are not wrong. Will post up on what I decide but in the meantime stay well.

Cheers mate, will look forward to hearing what you end up buying and your thoughts.  Stay safe and well. 

[ollypenrice]

9 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

The smooth design works beautifully well on the Feathertouch range, with no slip whatsoever, and superb holding power too..... 🤔👍

I haven't seen an FT Crayford though I have their rack and pinion on my TEC 140. It's excellent. You're saying that the FT uses a smooth roller running on an anodized smooth drawtube?

Olly

[andrew s]

I have an FLI Atlas focuser  no idea how it works but it just does.

Interesting that a friction focuser (e.g. Crayford) is a no no but a friction mount is the bees knees. A question of balance I assume. Some Crayfords ( e.g. Van Slyke)  had a spring to balance the increasing load as the altitude increased.

Regards Andrew 

[Stuart1971]

19 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I haven't seen an FT Crayford though I have their rack and pinion on my TEC 140. It's excellent. You're saying that the FT uses a smooth roller running on an anodized smooth drawtube?

Olly

Yes there Crayfords do...And they are excellent....

I had one and struggled to push it in with the brake set correctly, it really was quite superb, would have held 3-5kg easily, and with a motor fitted, more.. 👍😀

[ollypenrice]

17 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Yes there Crayfords do...And they are excellent....

I had one and struggled to push it in with the brake set correctly, it really was quite superb, would have held 3-5kg easily, and with a motor fitted, more.. 👍😀

I'm surprised and wish I could say the same for my Moonlite.

Olly

[Stuart1971]

1 minute ago, ollypenrice said:

I'm surprised and wish I could say the same for my Moonlite.

Olly

I also have had a moonlite in the past, and they are in a much lower league than the FT, in fact pretty useless in comparison, I would only ever have a FT crayford...

Not sure what does make the difference between the two, as the designs are very similar...but the FT does have a unique design where the bearings, smooth surface and focus shaft are all at the bottom of the focuser...🤔🤔

[Bullmastiff]

Hi I really need some help been scratching my head for months and I can’t get an answer from anyone. I have 2 celestrons edgeHD 8 & celestron edgeHD 11. I have a moonlite CHL 2.5 which fits onto my C11 and want to put it onto the edgeHD 8 using my .7 reducer do I need to buy a new flange for it to fit the edge 8? Or do I need a new moonlite to fit the edge 8.

Basically can I use the same focuser for both and just change the flange when needed for the edge HD 8?

thanks in advance hope someone can clear this for me 

[Bullmastiff]

On 07/04/2020 at 12:23, souls33k3r said:

Hi All, 

I think I mignt have to end up buying an external focuser for my EdgeHD 8" scope and because I'm not too well versed in this subject matter, I'd like your kind help in suggesting something which will fit my purpose. 

Allow me to explain my setup, I have EdgeHD which has a stock focuser and I've had a terrible experience using the motorised stepper focuser on it so was suggested to leave the stock focus knob and buy an external focuser which does make sense for my application. My scope is currently in such formation

EdgeHD 8 - 0.7x Reducer - Spacer/Adapter to attach to an OAG - TOAG - Spacer/T2 to attach to FW - ZWO FW - Asi1600 camera 

I would like to keep all the components so the external focuser needs to come somewhere in between. Can you kindly suggest any that does not break the bank? I already have a Lakeside focuser so will look in to attaching that.

Options I have seen so far are:

1) Moonlite CHL 2.5" focuser for which I've seen the price hike (£130 in the last few days) so that's out of the question. 

2) Primaluce lab Essato 2" which again is stupidly expensive and I already have Lakeside so now what? 

3) Baader SteelTrack Diamond SC for SCT Telescopes

4) Revelation 2" SCT Crayford - 1:11 Dual Speed Focuser 

Any others? Any experiences with any of the above? Whatever choice I would like to have like I said will need to incorporate all of my gear above. 

Thank you. 

Hi I have just managed to find myself a Moonlite CHL for my edgeHD 8 I wish to use it as AP I have the .7 reducer but I can’t find anywhere what’s the back focus is using a asi 533mc pro camera.

also how to install the .7 reducer into the focuser so I can keep the back focus as it should be I would appreciate as much help as possible thanks in advance