Hi Jethro & Darryl,
Great MINDS! Thanks for the suggestion of the Electric Focuser!
I bought (well, sort of, the missus and the mother in law bought me these for my birthday later in the month) the Skywatcher Electric Focuser today for $95 and fitted it this afternoon. You were right, the degree of focus adjustment and the fact that its hands off the scope is FANTASTIC. I wasnt sure if the electric motor could adjust finely enough compared to a 10:1, but its really very good at what what it does and it costs less than a 10:1 focuser!
Basically I had to unscrew the left focus knob from the shaft after scraping off the locking glue inside the knob and slide the electric one on. Both screw holes didnt line up, but its solid enough with just one holding it down. I also had to mod the mount bar though as the R&P axle on my scope was a little thin so all I did was push on a cut down plastic wall plug for masonry over the axle to beef up its diameter and keep the motor on axis with the shaft.
I also bought a Cheshire collimator while I was at it as I suspected my scope was out (and it was
). This caused me a few headaches, as well as a chipped secondary mirror on the outside when I turned the allen key screws in too far and "grind, crunch, tinkle" came out of the scope before I could stop! - OUCH. Its not so bad though, only just on the secondary's edge and from what I can see, doesnt affect the visual field. Lesson learnt!
So, I figured out how to do it the correct way and lined it all up in the circles and the scope seems to be much better. I had thought about fine tuning it outside, but after the mirror mishap inside, outside in the dark just didnt seem like a good idea.
I just finished testing the collimation and the electric focuser outside and WOW!
what a difference!
The 10mm WA eyepiece no longer looks like its bleeding stars and the 12.5mm ED is beeeeewwwwwdiful!
I know I am a gadget freak but considering I couldn't realistically and painlessly change my R&P focuser to a 10:1 crayford without a lot of stuffing around, a metal shop and some luck, this electric focus motor is going to impress me for a long time yet! I suppose I am going to have to start a separate thread in which to keep all of my bits I keep adding to my signature!
I can't get over how easy it is now to get really fine focus by setting the speed to slowest and pulsing the button. I was out there for an hour just being amazed at how clear everything is now! Really, really happy with the mod.
Collimation and gadgetry, what a difference it makes!
PS. I have added some pics of the electric focuser and the control box for those people who may be interested in what we are talking about.
Cheers
Chris