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Old 24-11-2011, 04:07 PM
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pmrid (Peter)
Ageing badly.

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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cloudy, light-polluted Bribie Is.
Posts: 3,761
Here are a couple of images of my Moonlte setup as requested by Adam. Not the best photos but you get the idea. The ED127 requires the large-format 2.5inch focuser and there is a specific flange that they make for the 127 - easy to order. Be sure to tell them that you have the aluminium OTA or the CF - the attachment method is different for each.

The upshot of these focuser issues has been that I have now disassembled the NG version and discovered what was wrong. I'll mention it here in case others find it useful.

Disassembly is not difficult. You remove the knob on the left side (without the 10:1 knob) and slide it off. There is a single grub-screw. That should allow you to slide the shaft part-way across and allow the drawtube to be removed. Fully slack off the tensioning bolt underneath of course.

The rollers on which the drawtube should slide are mounted in short 44mm long aluminium sections in which there are two rollers - one at each end. And the roller shaft is mounted just a bit above the midline so that the rollers sit slightly proud of the body - provided that body is inerted right-side-up. There are two of these assemblies - at the 2 o'clock and 10 oc'clock positions. As the pressure is applied from the tensioning bolt below, the drawtube is pressed upwards against these 4 rollers thereby providing both guidance and a degree of braking. There is no separate brake.
In order for these 2 aluminium assemblies to sit in the body of the focuser, their corners are slightly beveled (should that had 2 'l's) and these have the look of somethig that is done by hand because they are different and irregular. In my case, the bevels on the side required for proper orientation were too small so the constructor merely flipped one of the 2 assemblied upside-down to make it fit. The bevels on that side were sufficient to allow it to be seated properly but the result was that the rollers were not exposed and so there was nothing on that side to guide/control the drawtube.

A few minutes judicious use of the grinding wheel corrected the bevel and allowed me to correctly orient that roller section. Re-assembly was uneventful and the focuser now functions pretty much as the first one I bought in 2009 did - not great but sufficuent for visual and light DSLR use.

If anyone needs more guidance on the disassembly process, feel free to PM me.

Peter
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