Moonlight focuser arrived today what a Lump!?

[Supernova74]

Hi people I’ve just purchased the moonlite sct focuser from the nice guys at Rother valley optics definitely seemed to be more of a deal there on pricing.for tho,s who maybe considering one for there sct cassagrain well mine which is an 12”LX90 ACF gosh it’s a lump seems very well made and engineered nicely however the claimed gold looks more like a copper orangery colour.Anyways I would definitely consider useing a counter weight system which I have which I made myself for around £60 and it looks just as good on others on the the market really had to tighten up the clutch after the moonlite,diagonal and 40mm ES 2” eyepiece was onboard besides it puts less stress on the drives 

[jonathan]

After fitting a 2" diagonal, dual-speed focuser and 2" eyepiece to my 8" SCT I found that it was rather over the intended weight limit of the original mount, I had to abandon it in favour of an NEQ6 Pro.  It would also hit the mount when approaching the zenith, not good for a GoTo.

I considered a counterweight too but ultimately I think the extra weight would just put more strain on the motors trying to shift the weight around (or would in my case - the single arm Celestron GoTo mount that the 8SE came on).

Not sure on the 12" but the 8" should be quite comfortable on a 5EQ, the NEQ6 Pro is a bit overkill but has zero wobble!

There's also the SkyTee Alt-Az mount which should be able to cope (10kg per mount point), it's not GoTo though AFAIK and you'd need a suitable heavy duty tripod.

Edited April 16, 2020 by jonathan