Fitting -Baader Steeltrack for Newtonian

[bottletopburly]

So my Xmas treat was to upgrade the stock focuser on my 200 PDS Newtonian to a Baader Steeltrack highly regarded as a solid focuser , so yesterday I stripped the old focuser out , now marking the new holes was a pain that could have been easily remedied if baader had supplied a paper template rather than taking the focus shaft off the base as instructed by baader , note once holes drilled in ota remember to refit shaft to base as some of  the grub  screws are inaccessible once  verabase bolted to ota , ask me how I know 😆, now there is a bit of allowance the length of travel on the base so you can slide focuser up and down tube to centre on secondary , I also elongated holes the opposite direction so I could manipulate focuser up down and left to right once  focuser bolted down , now this is the bit with baader I don’t understand, due to the base design this allows light leakage under the plate into the ota which was quickly remedied by cutting two strips of foam that housed the focuser in packaging box and glued to underside of base blocking light , now for collimation , I inserted my concentre eyepiece which is the best so I’m told instrument for centring secondary now I have had it a year and wasn’t impressed never could get it looking right then I stumbled on a thread here  on SGL  which showed a picture and I thought mine never looks like that all centred perfect also noted @johninderby  put check your focuser is 90 degrees to tube hmmm 🤔 so I looked at the front of ota low and behold I could see the focuser was not sitting square , so I aligned a metal ruler with spider vanes and it was clear focuser was on the wonk , now badder supply 4 shims , so I put 2 shims on one side of base and 1 shim on the other side and that did the trick now I tightened the four bolts down on base whilst looking down concentre making sure bolts were evenly tightened , now looking down the concentre the secondary looked as it should and probably the old focuser was tilted too and why I wasn’t sure on the concentre eyepiece, primary aligned to secondary, primary clips all looking equal  

laser hitting polo whilst slowly turning laser , polo in centre of concentre eyepiece/ coli cap and Cheshire just to check my collimation OCD , now all I need is the bracket to fit my autofocuser to the Steeltrack which Pavle at Deepskydad is sending me then will do a star test and see how it turns out but I’m pretty optimistic that all will be good ,the only negatives with the steeltrack are to do with the base ,there are four holes which are supposed to fit your old focuser holes , they don’t not on a 200pds they would be better doing away with these and supply a paper template, I used flocking material to block these holes up and baader should supply a foam strip to block the underside of base other that a good focuser .

note I did find a site with a 3D printed spacer that fits under the verabase which looks a neat soloution pity baader never thought of that https://en.rbfocus.net/product-page/adaptador-200pds-para-enfocador-baader-diamond-steeltrack

 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by bottletopburly

[Aramcheck]

On 06/12/2021 at 08:05, bottletopburly said:

due to the base design this allows light leakage under the plate into the ota which was quickly remedied by cutting two strips of foam that housed the focuser in packaging box and glued to underside of base blocking light...

note I did find a site with a 3D printed spacer that fits under the verabase which looks a neat soloution pity baader never thought of that https://en.rbfocus.net/product-page/adaptador-200pds-para-enfocador-baader-diamond-steeltrack

@bottletopburly I don't suppose you remember the dimensions for the foam fix & which bit of the packaging you used? I'm in the middle of fitting the baader to my 200pds...

I thought about the adapter you listed but with shipping it worked out at 70 Euros, so I'd much rather try the foam solution!

Cheers
Ivor

[bottletopburly]

4 minutes ago, Aramcheck said:

@bottletopburly I don't suppose you remember the dimensions for the foam fix & which bit of the packaging you used? I'm in the middle of fitting the baader to my 200pds...

I thought about the adapter you listed but with shipping it worked out at 70 Euros, so I'd much rather try the foam solution!

Cheers
Ivor

Yes left piece doesn’t matter too much which you use I used those pieces only needs to be about 12x 10 as it will compress and fill gap , you may need to trim foam once compressed to Ota , it may hang over hole on ota , trim from inside of ota