Been playing with my Orion MN190 Mak-Newt astrograph tonight, including a disassemble of the focuser. There was rust in the middle of the spindle where it contacts the flat on the drawtube (VERY gritty feeling!) and the dual speed knob was not in the correct position or adjusted. So, I polished the spindle, regreased it all, fixed the dual speed goof and tried it again. Nice, but...
So, if money is not strictly limited - I plan spending circa $700 - which would you go with:
1. Moonlite 2" specially for the the MN190, with a high res stepper focus unit
or
2. Feathertouch (with nothing extra).
I am well used to manual focusing, but I am thinking if I go the Moonlite, I may as well go finally to the dark art of autofocus.
Moonlite never "grabbed" me MANUALLY, but if it's going to be robotic, it does not matter.
I can only compare my Moonlite to the generic focuser I had. Even without the fantastic motorised system, the Moonlite is just so much better to use - with the motor it's very handy. And it holds the focus well, even if the system has been slewed around all over the place.
I've yet to master autofocusing - hope to start on that soon - but being able to control the focus from the computer is much better than going back and forth to the scope.
I use both focusers and the builds are amazing. Super high quality. The only difference here in that respect is the motorisation. If you need it now, Moonlite, but you can retrofit the feather touch. Moonlite focusers are heavy and you need to make sure there is enough back focus in either case. Both come up on IIS classifieds and there is a feathertouch on eBay : http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Starlight...3#ht_950wt_846
Ron at Moonlite has supplied me a quote, with the 2.5" format, threaded adapters, high res stepper focus with V2 controller with exprss post to Aus of $840 US, which is fantastic!
