I just went off and grabbed a Crayford 2" Dual-Focus Focuser and Visual-Back, which came with a 1.25" Adapter. Now it will fit anything that crosses my synapses to use with the Lil' Dicken's!

I love that little scope!

Dave

 

Sounds good. Was it one of those 'arm and & leg' Crayfords?

 

It was/is this Crayford:

http://agenaastro.com/gso-crayford-focuser-refractor-telescope-dual-speed-86mm.html

Dave

 

That looks nice. I might try and find a GSO Crayford here. If not I may have to shell out for the WO Crayford.

 

Sorry. I'll do some research and see what I can find.

 

I still think the stock focuser will be strong enough. I'll keep looking though.

 

I haven't found anything else yet Ray. As I said before, the two set screws should hold most 1.25" diagonals and eyepieces pretty securely. The only problem I've found is if the diagonal rotates in the focuser draw tube. This can be exacerbated by having too much length and weight at an angle.



Although it seemed to deal with this. I'd prefer less height in the diagonal at an angle than this though.



Plan B from outer space will have to be scrapped lol! I tried this finder position (above) with the 6x30 and 9x50 RACI on the Skymax actually mounted on the Porta. I discovered that the azimuth slo mo control is in the way! The flexible cable not only obscures the finder view but actually rests against the finder body itself. I felt like a right plonker lol. The slo mo position can be moved but I'm leaving it where it is at the moment as I'm used to it and it could be a difficult job for me. I even bought a heated dew shield for the Skymax as well. I think my brain damage is finally starting to show. Oh well, back to the drawing board.



I found this (above) on the Interweb ages ago. The bad colouring-in, border and the re-labelling are mine though lol. It's a basic rule of thumb (and fingers) guide to estimating degrees of arc in the sky. I thought you might find it useful. You hold your arm up against the sky and it gives an idea of distance between objects. The Full Moon is about half a degree and is about half the width of your little finger.

 

Yeah, some things seem impossible to find but you'd think they'd exist. Like tube rings for a 102mm Skymax.

I just found Neptune with the Orion 90mm Mak, which I've discovered is actually called a StarMax.



Neptune at 18:00 GMT, 32.4° azimuth, 23.8° altitude, 29.952 au from Sol (Aquarius). It just looks like a blue dot but is not like a star. You can't see it with the naked eye. It's easier to find tonight as it's close to Mars.



Didn't look like this of course.



It is kind of this blue colour though and appears different to Uranus even though there are similarities.



I had a look at the Moon. The clouds came soon enough of course. But for around 45 mins I saw the Moon, Mars, Venus and Neptune all relatively near each other in the sky. Venus' phase is visibly approaching last quarter.

 

Wow, that does look cool Ray. I'm going to put my SW RACI with the white holder on my Orion ST80. I hope it looks as good as yours.

 

Indeed it does! I wonder how many times I can say that I L*O*V*E* these neat, little telescopes - before my jaw atrophies....?

So here's my GSO-8 X 50mm RACI in black. And that video-cam onboard is a MallinCam Jr. PRO I've been tinkering with for a bit, but no serious endeavors as yet. I'm not in a hurry to go broke - too soon. I usually have one of my 2" WO Di-Electric 90° Diagonals on there. 'There' being the 10:1 Dual-Focus Crayford. I also have the very, very good 1.25" GSO Di-Electric Diagonals,' which are selling at a very appealing cost out of this place - AgenaAstro.

The way things are right now, GSO is putting excellent optical & mechanical astro-goodies to market and leaving the competition to shame with their prices. Just in case you have the unquenchable thirst to spend more $$$, Ray! And you too Mak!

In case you're curious, that mount was/is an Orion AZ-4 Micro-Motion. They failed miserably as their clutch, which claimed a 10lbs. capacity, would slip with so much as a few ounces! So Orion tried to foist 'em off on people for around 1/3rd. the price. I got one and re-did the clutch with a file, a strip of 80-grit sandpaper, and some glue. Now it holds the 10lbs. without any qualms. Tools required: 2 4mm Allen-wrenches & an elastic-band.




And the ST80:



That big, black-thing on the MallinCam is an older Optec F6.3 focal-reducer that came with my StellaCam II from around 2003-ish. I'm still not sure what this set-up will produce. Maybe the 'phaser.' I'll aim it at my neighbor's spotlight.....

Have too much fun!

Dave

 

What is it with mounts and Allen keys (wrenches) lol? The Porta II has a couple of them actually stowed conveniently in the mount head. Useful for micro adjustments to azimuth/altitude tension in the field. I also store one of those Synta flat 'screwdrivers' in there for tightening the slo mo control screw holding the control rod on the azimuth (two flat screwdrivers and a couple of dodgy Chinese spanners shown below).



Sky-Watcher/Celestron have two AZ4 mounts with different tripods. One of them is heavier like in your picture. No doubt there is an Orion equivalent.

 

I tend to dispose of that sort of toy-tools. I use my professional stuff. Using poor tools is a very bad habit to get into - especially when something delicate and in need of actual skills comes along and - Ta Da!! A Disaster looms! I'll get my popcorn!

Your AZ4 by Skywatcher is Orion's VersaGo II over here. And Orion's FORMER AZ-4 was a disaster for anyone with no mechanical-skills, or bravery to do what I did: Disassemble it and find a solution! EEEEK!!

See ya!

Dave

 

The triangular (or is it trapezoid? lol) screwdrivers are useful. I wouldn't like to rely on the spanners in an emergency though lol.

 

It's a Sky-Watcher 9x50, you can see it on the Bazooka in my current avatar. I was going to put the Orion 9x50 on the Skymax, but the less said about that the better lol. It will go on the StarMax (Orion 90mm Mak) but the scope circumference isn't huge and it's a bit of a squeeze when using the diagonal. The Orion 6x30 works well though. I'll only be using the StarMax for lunar/planetary, brighter DSO's and splitting doubles anyway. I doubt I'll really need a 9x50 on it. The 6x30 actually has a bigger FOV.



These are the slo mo controls to the chocolate teapot. Standard Synta EQ2/AZ3 slo mo's tend to be 28 and 32cm. EQ1 mounts have a shorter one along with the one of 28 centimetres length.