Fitted my Orion Nautilus filter wheel over the past 2 nights.....
Night one was software install/testing, I
eventually got it working, had to force-feed win7 the driver it seemed, finally Sequence Generator Pro can drive it through ASCOM.
Night two was install onto the scope. What an ordeal!
From my calculations I
should have heaps of backfocus (newtonian/moonlite focuser), but to be sure I took out the spacers from the focuser, I couldn't take them all out as the moonlites focus motor would hit the OTA, tried rotating the focuser to improve balance, but then the focus motor fouls on the spider nuts! So I've become adept at removing and replacing moonlites, BTW the moonlite spacers aren't symmetrical, put it in backwards, all seems OK until the focuser drawtube hits the spacer!
Finally (and I'm getting tired now) went to get it focused, plenty of sucker holes around, so slew to a clear Milky Way region and start...
Can't get focus, its a newt right - it must be right racked in there somewhere.... took out the last spacer I could and screwed in the camera as far as it would go, nada! Can't get focus at all.
Really tiring now.... decide I need to call it a night and think about it tomorrow, and start thinking of cutting down a second newt OTA....
Then it dawned - I measured the infinity focus in a post on IIS a few months ago - 107mm from OTA....
Outside to the scope, 107mm lines up at least 25mm above the CCD plane.... I have overcorrected big time, and wasn't racking out the focuser far enough.... may need to put the spacers back in now!
I knew I calculated ages ago that a moonlite would give me heaps of room for a filter wheel.....
Gee AP is frustrating at times....
