Quote:
Originally Posted by codemonkey
How'd you go Paul? Have you verified whether the focuser can now hold your camera in the same position throughout the sky? Have you received the adapters for the Atlas yet and if so, did that solve your problem? I'm still intending to get the LiteCrawler for my ONTC, but have concerns that using such a heavy focuser will introduce new issues...
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Hi Lee,
"funny thing happened along the way".
To start, yes I now have the Atlas focusor on board with the adapters. I got the first lot of adapters about a month ago. Everything fit as it nearly always does with Precise Parts (I've only ever had one issue and they fixed it free of charge), but somewhere in the mad calculations for back focus I neglected to allow for a 5mm adapter plate on the front of the QSI. Those that don't know, the Atlas has a draw tube length of 10mm and hence why it can carry do much weight. I thought I had allowed for the adapter, but not being able to reach focus would suggest otherwise. So; after ordering another adapter (the smaller of the previous ones) I received it earlier this week (despite it being in the country since last Wednesday
, well done Australia Post) and started doing some V curves on Monday night.
From what I could see focus was consistent across the field but it looked a little out of collimation. Today, I drove to the observatory, fixed collimation, did a few other chores and now I am waiting for the sky to be clear. That has happened a few times whilst I was without the correct adapter, but not at present.
The Atlas is lighter than the Moonlite focuser and seems to have sorted the problem of draw tube flex. More testing will tell me if I have solved the problem of tilt etc and I will get back and tell everyone as soon as possible.
