The Moon 5th May - Motor Focuser Test

[jgs001]

I got a motor focuser yesterday for use with the little Skymax. It's designed for the NexStar 5, but given it was 80% off list price, it's hard to say no

Anyway, it arrived yesterday, and whilst it doesn't fit in the proper location, the drive spindle is too long, I've got the fitting wedged around the dovetail and it puts the drive in just the right place. And it works a treat. I tested it last night, with the Skymax on my camera tripod (which is rated for 6Kg, but not designed to handle 1300mm focal length scopes but works pretty well). Anyway, the image in liveview at 10x magnification (I guess that would be the equiv of a view at 13000mm ) didn't even twitch as I used the motor focuser. This should help me nail the focus for webcam imaging, even on the NexStar (I get wobbly views when focusing on the HEQ5 with the webcam on the skymax).

Anyway... here's the results.. last nights moon

with colour enhanced

[Jaffa007]

Very nice images mate!

[Dante]

Motorised focussing - now there's something to put on my Chrissy list.

Your pictures are very good. I especially like the colour enhanced one, so much more interesting with colour

Dante

[jgs001]

Thanks guys. Hopefully olive can test it out properly with the webcam soon.