I recently ordered a Moonlite 2.5" focuser to replace the stock unit on my Skywatcher Black Diamond 120.
When I originally bought the telescope I was aware the supplied focuser was temperamental (thanks to a gentleman in Canberra who owns one, who turned out to be a member of this forum -- I've forgotten your name, sorry!) and even though I successfully resolved the problem of having the drawtube slide out under heavy load (a problem which is simply due to how to focusers are assembled and adjusted in the factory), I wanted something a bit more robust and decided to give the Moonlite a go.
After placing an order with Moonlite, it took just
4 business days for the unit to arrive in Melbourne from Pennsylvania, carefully wrapped and in pristine condition. Installing it was an absolute breeze and took about 2-3 minutes.
Aside from the blazingly fast delivery time and the excellent quality of the product itself, Moonlite have provided nothing less than Tier 1 service when it came to answering my questions about the purchase.
After I installed it I found that I was no longer able to achieve focus with my 4x barlow connected and that I needed a couple of millimeters of extra travel. I contacted Moonlite and enquired as to whether they could provide a 2.5" -> 2.0" compression ring that was deeper than the 10mm one supplied, so as to gain the extra travel needed to resolve this problem. Much to my surprise, Ron from Moonlite wrote back and said that they could manufacture the part for me during their next machining run. I mean, let's face it, most companies would just turn around and say, "Sorry, the one we supplied is the only one we do."
I am very happy with the Moonlite focuser. The 2.5" diameter drawtube appears to make everything brighter when compared to the one supplied by Skywatcher and I look forward to trying out the high-resolution stepper motor which I also ordered as part of the kit. Their gear is worth every cent you pay for it and their service is fantastic.
