Helios Explorer 200mm Reflector focuser and 2 inch eyepieces?

[doublevodka]

Hi all,

 

I've recently got myself this scope and because it has a nice wide focuser I was thinking about a 2 inch eyepiece a little later down the line.

 

But, for some reason there seems to be no ability to actually use a 2 inch eyepiece, the gold / bronze colour piece just unscrews completely and  there are no grub screws etc.

 

From doing a bit of digging it looks the same as the basic rack and pinion focuser used on the skywatcher 200mm reflectors (the Helios was the precursor so that would make sense) so I suspect it may be possible to swap the top section? Has anyone done this change and can confirm it works?

[lenscap]

Hi doublevodka,

To use 2" EP's you need to remove the bronze coloured 1.25" eyepiece adapter and replace it with the 2" eyepiece adapter that usually comes with Helios/Skywatcher 200p's. Perhaps the previous owner still has it and the knurled ring with the grubscrews that it fits in.

Edited March 23, 2021 by lenscap

[John]

There should be a couple of screws holding your 1.25 inch eyepiece adapter into the focuser drawtube but I can't see those on your scope. The arrangement should look like this:

By loosening the lower pair of chrome screws in the photo above, the 1.25 inch eyepiece adapter can be removed and a 2 inch eyepiece adapter inserted. The 2 inch adapter looks like this:

I wonder if your focuser drawtube has been modified in some way as it does not have that lower pair of screws

Edited March 23, 2021 by John

[doublevodka]

1 hour ago, lenscap said:

Hi doublevodka,

To use 2" EP's you need to remove the bronze coloured 1.25" eyepiece adapter and replace it with the 2" eyepiece adapter that usually comes with Helios/Skywatcher 200p's. Perhaps the previous owner still has it and the knurled ring with the grubscrews that it fits in.

Thanks for the info, it's a fairly old scope so I suspect that has been misplaced during its ownership, the people I bought it from gave me everything they had with it