[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Okay, an update on things since I received my Moonlite focuser...I am going to ramble and recap in this post...be warned, this is a long one...

Since my wife will be stuck with the kids all next week while I am in Japan for meetings, I suggested that she go off and do some "girl things" during the day while I took care of our two boys (7 and 4)...

After watching the Roseville under 8's rugby squad (my son plays) win in decisive fashion in a match over the squad from East Lindfield, the boys and I headed over to Lincraft to get some adhesive backed felt...just enough to "flock" opposite where the new focuser was going to go..(earlier, last wekend I had trouped off to Clark Rubber for the makings of a black light shield)

After consuming 2 Chicken Nugget Happy Meals at MCDs and collecting the Ron Stoppable action figures (a character from Disney's Kim Possible cartoon), we were able to return home to get to work.

I've never claimed to be the "handiest" person around the house and with my two "special helpers" I was a bit concerned about the tasks at hand...they were as follows:

Remove primary and secondary mirrors (just for safety...little hands handling tools)
Remove old R&P focuser
Drill new holes
Flock around focuser area
check the secondary and primary clips (loosen as needed)
Install new Moonlite CR2 focuser
reinstall secondary and primary mirrors
compete the lightshield
make sure no one was hurt or in tears and had a chance to "help"...
lastly, not make too much of a mess doing all of this...

Well, I am proud to report that with no tears and no major dramas, we did complete all of the projects on the lists!

I was able to "create" enough tasks to keep everyone busy...

Hopefully, tonight we can get the scope out for a quick peak at the sky...

A couple of key learnings:

Have a plan...don't be afraid to go to Plan B...the projet will never go exactly as planned...

Velcro alone is not sufficient to hold the foam rubber in a circle, I had to "top up" velcro with glue...

To ensure that all of the old focuser holes were covered, I flocked a complete strip around the OTA at the focuser end...I painted the new screws too after the focuser install just to keep it from being shiny

The metal tube (OTA) is easy to push out of shape...getting the primary mirror back in was a bit touger than I expected...this problem was probably compounded by the fact that my youngest son was "rolling" the OTA around on the floor!

Taking apart your telescope, while a scary task, is something that you should do...I was scared stiff about drilling the OTA to install the new focuser...remember, it is only some bits of metal and glass...poorly trained peasants are putting them together in factories in China, a resonably educated capable person can do this...

I now have a much better understanding and appreciation of how the whole thing works...I did get it all back together and I did not have any spare parts!

My understanding of how things work increased a lot and I improved my collimation skills because of it...I am sure that my collimation could still be better but, I feel I understand what it is that I am doing and therefore am getting better results...

I was really able to get my older son involved in collimation for the first time...because I knew better how to tell him what to look for and why it looked the way it did! He really enjoyed the "responsibility" of telling me when things weren't quite circle shaped or centered!

While I have not had it under the stars yet, the lightshield and/or flocking (mostly lightshield I think) will make a dramatic difference...the OTA is much much darker...hopefully I'll have less stray light and better contrast here in my light polluted backyard.

Just in the daylight it seems to make a big difference...I was especially proud that when it was all finished that the lightshield fit properly and when finally installed measured out to exactly 1.5X the mirror diameter from the secondary mirror!...better to be a little lucky than good...

The Moonlite focuser feels like a dream!

I don't know if I will ever be able to measure the improvement (or lack of improvement) that these changes make to the scope or my use of it...however, the satisfaction and pride I feel right at this moment from successfully completing a project I was not sure at the start I was capabe of finishing is brilliant. Having my two boys share the excitement is well...just like they say in the Mastercard ad...priceless!

Okay, now the clouds can roll in because I am ready to look at the sky (with my two boys of course)!

Cheers!