The Agena Astro GSO 10:1 DS Focuser Review

[Deneb]

Hi

I thought i'll post this review up of my recently aquired Agena Astro GSO 10:1 Dual Speed Focuser for my C100ED.

As I am trying to plan for a holiday, the budget for a Moonlite was out of the Window so to speak, so I decided to invest in a GSO 10:1 Dual Speed Crayford focuser for my Celestron 100ED. Between the two focusers, the Moonlite retails at £349 inc. Vat & the GSO inc. it's focuser adaptor, USPS International Insured Tracking Delivery (not to be confused with UPS) + Customs & Excise your looking at £190.00 inc. Delivery by Parcelforce Express 24 & Vat. A saving of £159 over the Moonlite.

Well lets see how I got on, ordered on the 18th of this month, it was delivered today (25th).

The screw on adaptor

The underside of the focuser with locking & tension screws with it's 1" aluminium focus knobs

The C100ED stock focuser

Focuser adaptor tightened with a Rubber strap wrench

Focuser adaptor nicely tightened & flush with tube, no left over threads with this one .

Focuser also supports 2" accessories, also comes with a 1.25" adaptor

The focuser now screwed into the base adaptor (the M4 screws come supplied)

The Final product

Now you've seen the pics, my impressions:

Actually I was quite surprised with the quality of the focuser & how easy it was to fit compared to my last encounter with my refractor. It is really a nice CNC machined focuser with measurements marked on the drawtube. The feel of it is solid and the drawtube movement is nice & smooth without play. I also think a positive thing, the focuser is rotatable by loosening the thumbscrew on the upper side of the focuser to your desired viewing position. Well how does this compare with a Moonlite:

Well, let me say this, if I had the budget for a Moonlite with a choice of colours to choose from to match your scope & you want a thing of beauty I would choose a Moonlite (you Moonlite owners know what I mean). The Moonlites do come with a Dovetail shoe for your finders, which I did not find with the GSO Focuser (but I do not use one anyway).

If you cannot justify buying a £349 focuser or your on a budget, this is the next best thing.. Why hell you are saving £159 alone for a top notch focuser. It's just a shame that you have to order it from the US of A & there's not a UK reseller, total time taken to fit was 20mins max.

Any comments welcome.

Cheers

Nadeem.

[Beyond_Vision]

Not sure if you have noticed but part of the inside surface is unpainted this may cause problems with reflections.

Regards

Kevin

[Deneb]

No big deal, I'll paint it myself if have to , thats if it comes an issue.

Nadeem.

[step_hen]

Thanks for this Nadeem. Been considering the same upgrade for my C80ED for a while but am put off a bit by purchasing from the states. How did you find that experience? What hidden costs are there, such as import duty etc?

Stephen

[AndyH]

Nice one Nadeem. I have the single speed focuser and it really is a very, very nice upgrade.

Haven't bought anything from Agena, YET. Lots of interesting stuff, unavailable here in the UK. Agena Astro looks like a great company to deal with. They also have a shipping calculator, which is very handy. Really good prices on the Speers-Waler UWA eyepieces at the moment.

A finder shoe can be bought and mounted on the focuser body. You take out one of two small grub screws and the shoe fits on. I have a W.O. finder body with shoe and have done just that with my Burgess 90.(Should be pics in my album?)

Stephen - Over the years probably half of my purchases have been from across the pond.

Mainly cause stuff wasn't available over here. Never had a problem. I've bought screws, focusers, eyepieces and scopes.

If the seller sends by USPS(nearly all my stuff's been sent using them), then in my experience, 60-70% of the items sneek by custums untouched. If caught, you'll experience a delay. Costs incured: You'll get vat added to the total, inc shipping costs. Parcelfarce will add a fee(varies according to value, I think) and if the value of the item is high there may be a import duty added. Only had the import duty once, on a $700 item.

UPS will always go through customs. That's how they work. Quicker service.

If you're still put off, try Telescope-Service in Germany. They sell the GSO focusers too. I got a single speed version. The pound/euro has been poor of late tho.

Cheers,

Andy.

[Deneb]

For customs I paid £39.00, everything I paid for was £190.00 inc. the customs duty. What I found out was, if you entered the USPS consignment no. into parcelforces website it would give another ref. no linked to your consignment.

After the package has cleared customs, Parcelforce sends you a letter displaying the customs charge & a unique ref. no which you can pay online & re-schedule your delivery to suit you.

Cheers

Nadeem.

[step_hen]

thanks guys- its now on my 'to buy' list. The focuser is the weak part in these scopes and this looks just the job.

Stephen

[Deneb]

Just make sure you can get the focuser off 1st, before you order.

Nadeem.

[step_hen]

I've already had it apart once to fix the 'wobble'. the little rectangular teflon pad had been dislodged

[A McEwan]

I ordered a single speed Crayford from Agena for my C80ED and attached it using the adapter ring thing too. Easy to do and a huge improvement over the stock rack & pinion focuser. But - comparing it with the Moonlite on my Equinox, it's not in the same league at all. Still a worthwhile upgrade though, and I suspect the dual speed model is a bit better than the single speed. It looks a bit more weighty for one thing.

I like Agena. I got a copy of The Modern Moon shipped over from them as I couldn't find it anywhere over here, and still got it for a discount price. Very helpful communications too.

Nice mod and report!

Ant

[Deneb]

Yes, your quite right Ant, I have a Moonlite CR1 focuser on my C80ED, they are in a league of their own, even the single speed has the equal build quality as their tri-knob focusers. Also they can handle a good amount of weight without any wobble. Once you've had a Moonlite the R & P focusers do seem a lot inferior (no offence to anyone who's using one).

In my review I was merely showing that there are " 2nd Best " options available & no way indicating that this was superior to a Moonlite Focuser. Apart from clear gloss laquer, Actually the Agena focuser reminds me of a William Optics focuser.

Cheers

Nadeem.

[A McEwan]

Yep, completely agree!

[johninderby]

Yes the GSO crayfords are good value for the money.

I've just ordered one of the new GSO 2" linear crayfords for a "cheaper" scope as I didn't want to spend too much on it. It looks to be a copy of the latest WO linear crayford with the drawtube having a stainless steel track fastened to it and running in a bearing housing having 40 or 50 ball bearings. It's rated as handling a 4kg load. Should have it about next Wednesday.

My favourite focuser is the Feather Touch 3" R&P on my FLT98. I thought crayfords were great until I tried the FT R&P. Just a whole order of magnitude better, but unfortunately the damage they do to your bank balance is also a whole order of magnitude greater so I won't be buying another one anytime soon !!!

John

[TopHouse]

About 9 times in ten you don't get hit with the customs charge. BUT, and I didn't tell you this... Many times if you contact the supplier and ask them to package it in non trade packaging and mark the customs sheet as a gift, they will do