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Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.
It's a SkyWatcher Equinox ED100 refractor. The circled bolt is, I believe for adjusting tension, and yes, the other one (silver coloured) is for locking the focuser. Well, that's what I've come to the conclusion of ;-)
I'm glad someone else has seem similar behaviour from a mount and when a battery is low...
Rob - you are absolutely right...my bad, looks like I've probably damaged it then :-( I'm sure I read somewhere to completely drain and charge...oh well. I'll take it into York Optical and keep my mouth shut and hopefully it'll get repaired free of charge. They make enough money on the damn units as is imho. My dad has a normal battery charge, could be worth a shot I guess. I'm more worried about long term damage if how I've been recharging it is wrong :-(
Mark - yeah, that's what I've been doing. I think I've been forgetting to lock the focuser when the camera is attached, so gravity and a weak (imho) focuser unit have conspired against me. Still, tightening the focuser back up again should resolve the focus issues...it still doesn't explain why I can no longer reach focus at all with the camera attached.
Duncan - it's a Crayford style 10:1 focusing unit, you are correct. Focus seems smooth and I'd read good things about it before buying...maybe I got a dud, I don't know.
One thing I'm suspicious on, is that I'd told Andrews that I'd buy the Equinox (last unit, demo model). Right at the end, after I'd placed the order, but before the money had cleared and the items had shipped, I changed my mind and asked if it was possible to get a Williams Optics Megrez 90 instead (primarily cos it looked sexier and had faster optics). They told me that they had none in stock. A few days after I got the unit, they updated the website indicating that WO Megrez units had arrived. I have a strong suspicion that they wanted to get rid of this model, maybe they were discontinuing this range, I don't know. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. I just checked, they no longer stock Equinox units. Interesting.
Also, I tried to talk them down in price but got nowhere, in fact, they put it up by a $100 between me committing to buy the unit (via EMail) and depositing the money, which was over a period of a week. I was basically waiting to get paid...their reasoning was the dollar crash. I tried to argue that they bought the units before the crash, so the crash didn't effect them at all, at least with this scope, but he would have none of it. So, in hindsight, I feel a bit dirty about it all. I haven't really dwelt on it though, better things to do with my time. This is the first time that I've really given it all a 2nd thought since I bought the gear.
Troy, would be good to meet up again. Bring along some snags and a steak and I'll fire up the BBQ :-) Bring the missus if you want.
It looks like I'm going to be out of action for a while though - York Optical said that they've changed distributors and it takes longer to get the units looked at/repaired. Not a happy camper am I! I hate being a newbie sometimes...
Thanks again for the help guys, much appreciated.
Dave
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