Motor Focuser - help with picking the right one

[Apprentice]

Hello all,

I have a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ. And I noticed that manual focusing produces shaking which lasts for more than a couple of seconds.

I noticed some people use motor focusers, so I am thinking of getting one myself, it should help since my hands are not so steady.

All I can find from my local dealer is the "Skywatcher Foc-Mot" at least the dealer says it is for Skywatchers and not sure if it will work with Celestron.

Does anybody have any experience with this?

Edited May 15, 2020 by Apprentice
Grammar

[Robindonne]

Can’t  help you because im on a search as well.   And have no experience with them, sorry. But when you get infected with the astro-virus, one of the symptoms is automation. So im going for a focuser that can be used in an automated setup.  And best of both worlds is to find one that can be manual focused, manually electric focused and also have a connection-option with a computer for autofocusing

Edited May 15, 2020 by Robindonne

[Shimrod]

On 14/05/2020 at 11:22, Apprentice said:

Hello all,

I have a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ. And I noticed that manual focusing produces shaking which lasts for more than a couple of seconds.

I noticed some people use motor focusers, so I am thinking of getting one myself, it should help since my hands are not so steady.

All I can found from my local dealer is the "Skywatcher Foc-Mot" at least the dealer says it is for Skywatchers and not sure if it will work with celestron.

Does anybody have any experience with this?

  If you don't mind a bit of DIY, you can build your own 'manual' focus motor: Focuser using a couple of servos (used in remote control devices) and a bit of wire! Probably cost you around £10 all in. Use your focus knob for the coarse control, then go hands off with the servo for the fine focus!  

[bottletopburly]

Deepskydad autofocuser can be used manually via a wired remote , or via a WiFi conection using phone pc / or computer via ascom also indi  https://deepskydad.com/autofocuser3 there’s a zwo focuser not sure if you can get a hand controller for that though .

[banjaxed]

On 14/05/2020 at 11:22, Apprentice said:

Hello all,

I have a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ. And I noticed that manual focusing produces shaking which lasts for more than a couple of seconds.

I noticed some people use motor focusers, so I am thinking of getting one myself, it should help since my hands are not so steady.

All I can found from my local dealer is the "Skywatcher Foc-Mot" at least the dealer says it is for Skywatchers and not sure if it will work with celestron.

Does anybody have any experience with this?

I don't have a Celestron scope but I believe they are the same company as Skywatcher. The Skywatcher motor focuser requires that the right hand focuser knob can be removed and the screws holding the focuser shaft can be used to attach one of the mounting brackets. If you can do both these things then the Skywatcher focuser should fit

[Apprentice]

I actually already ordered the Skywatcher from FLO, they mentioned that Skywatchers and Celestrons share many parts, so it should fit easily I am already looking forward to little to none shaking while focusing. The price was also quite affordable, only set me back around 45GBP.

@ShimrodWish I was that technical 😛 I tried fixing my RA Motor, which for some reason doesn't turn, but produces all the noise as if it would, and had little luck opening it. Hope that they can do something in the repair shop, wouldn't want to shell out another 40-50 notes for a new one.