Telescope wont focus

[jakey]

Well after receiving my new orionoptics 14 inch dob I was all set on the first clear night to see how it performs. Not a good night, the focusser has not enough play to actually focus on on anything distant. If I pull the eyepiece out of the focuser by about 1 cm then it will focus.

I am not happy

[The Warthog]

Understandably. A quick fix for now is to take the lens out of your Barlow lens, and put that in the tube. This will usually give you enough reach with your focuser to allow you to focus. Obviously, you can also not put the ep all the way in.

For a more permanent fix, you might want to call the manufacturer or dealer and see what they say. Or hear from some of the younger and wiser heads on this forum.

[GazOC]

Hi Jakey,

Did you test on a star?

[The Warthog]

Hi Jakey,

Did you test on a star?

Good point. If you're focusing on a Television aerial down the street, it may be too close.

[GazOC]

You could also try collimating the scope from the very bottom of the mirrors travel.

[GordonCopestake]

The orion optics scopes need a 2" extender to allow focus for visual. The reason for this is to allow for the low profile focuser which gives the ability to focus more accessories. It's a design feature not a fault. As WH said you can make an extender by removing the element from a barlow and just using the tube. You can also buy 2" extenders to use in the focuser permantly.

[jakey]

Thanx everyone, as usual you have been very helpful. It does irritate me though that I have to resort to a DIY function for such a basic part of the scope. I think I will be sending OO a little message. :nono:

[geppetto]

It wouldn't hurt them to include an extender with the scope :?

[GazOC]

Or make the feature clear in their advertising.

[jakey]

It wouldn't hurt them to include an extender with the scope :?

Or even take the time to tell you that you need one

[GordonCopestake]

I must admit that i've only ever brought second hand OO scopes, and every one has come with the 2" extender that was needed. I would have thought though that they would have supplied one as 99.9% of people want to use the scopes as visual instruments at some point.....

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I would have thought though that they would have supplied one as 99.9% of people want to use the scopes as visual instruments at some point.....

Especially as its a Dob.! Not much cop for imaging.

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

Out of interest, were there eyepieces supplied with it because

if there were and given its a DOB, I would have thought the inference was

that it was for visual use and clearly its not.

Get them to send you an extender for free

[fmeireso]

Well after receiving my new orionoptics 14 inch dob I was all set on the first clear night to see how it performs. Not a good night, the focusser has not enough play to actually focus on on anything distant. If I pull the eyepiece out of the focuser by about 1 cm then it will focus.

I am not happy

Jakey,

Sounds like you went for the Crayford...

If so, remove the screw that is used to block the focuser drawtube, thats theone closest to the tube.

I found out and somebody on CN confirm it that even if that screw is lose it could blok the last 1 cm outward travel. So it has to be removed or atleast further screwed out. Very strange!

That focusser has 4 cm of outward travel , if you only get 3 that will be the problem...tricky focusser you know....

I got a bad sample. The holes were badly drilled,one screw on top had no grip. The focuser itself could not lift my pan 24 and barlow nomatter how hard i tried to tighten it. So at the end i putted some rubber 'feet' on the spacers (or whatever it is) that supports the drawtube at the barrel with the knobs. But, suddendly it went a whole lot smoother and i got tension enough to lift al the eyepieces and barlows i could it to it, now it works fine.

The last dissapointment was that the 2inch to 1,25 inch adapter. The thing could not secure for some reason my pan 24...must be something with the inside ring, i dont know...This i replaced today with unfortunately rather expensive one,..from Televue. Better screw, much better tension...works really fine....

End of story

The better part : great views! blows my 6 inch out of the water and equals my 10 inch in lightgrasp and yet is sooooo leightweight and easy to handle....i am happy now.(I got an 8 inch F/4.5 on Vixen GP-E)

[jakey]

I didn't order the crayford I have the normal supplied one, however I will remove the screw inside the focusser and see what happens.

[fmeireso]

Hmmm, strange, then it is another case....

Perhaps you could try to move the mirror backwards by tightening the screws. I did that too ,John from OO told me that i would get aprrox 5-6 mm out of it. But i think the 14 inch will definately have another cell then my 8 inch...

I would contact John, which i did too, to know for sure what i could or could not do

Another simply solution is getting a extension tube or if you allready have one a bit of a larger one, it's standard on mine (at first i could not understand what that thing was doing in the packinging i received but soon it came clear.)

How much travel has your focusser,actually?

[jakey]

I have measured it as 4cm, this is the smallest travel I have ever had on a focusser.

[fmeireso]

Well my soso Crayford has not more. I believe my skywatcher 2 incher has 4 or 5 cm. However my 6 incher has an 1,25 focusser and has lots of travel could be 8 cm or even more..

I think a extension tube should get rid of the problem...Was'nt one provided with the scope?