I have managed to go out every day so far this month with the Solarscope and make some sunspot counts; okay, so only the 3rd was clear enough to see the Sun to do any actual counting, but hey, I’m trying! I’ve also been diligently filing in the BAA Solar Section’s observing form so I can send that off at the end of the month.
I’ve also run into the usual problems I have with focusers – more specificate, replacement focusers.
I haven’t used my 305mm Reflector since I attempted to replace the standard focuser with a dual speed Moonlight focuser, well, probably 3 years a go now. Collimation seemed to be a nightmare, and the few times I did bother to take the scope out, images were pretty rubbish. It’s on my list of things to do now I have some decent collimation tools and a laser, but score one for focuser upgrades biting me in the ass.
September was bonus month for me at work, and although it didn’t even clear my overdraft, I thought I might as well treat myself to something, no matter how small. So I decided to upgrade the focuser on my Skywatcher Refractor from the admittedly okay rack-and-pinion to a nice and shiny Crayford; I went for the Skywatcher Crayford as it promised to be a direct, drop-in replacement.
Was it heck as like!
The new focuser seems to be about 1-1.5mm too wide, so won’t actually fit in the OTA. I’m fairly hopeful that was some jiggling and wiggling and a bit of brute force it will actually fit, but I’m leaving that for now so I don’t do something silly and break everything.
Unfortunately, as I was trying to get the focuser to fit I noticed I was chipping the black paint inside the tube and looking at the lens I now have a one nicely covered in black paint chips. So I can’t even put the old focuser back on and do some observing.
Hopefully I’ll get out at some point with the little 66mm Refractor, or maybe I’ll find out where I put the 114mm Reflector and use that.
I might even properly collimate the 305mm!
