From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@me.com>

Date: February 14, 2010 3:45:31 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Feathertouch & Moonlite focusers

Peter, 

The message got stuck there in telling me it`d been delivered (I don`t think the notice for the original turned up here `til several hours later..!)Usually it`s an immediate operation. The Stepper motor option is a bit too expensive for my finances. I may get a little to spend when my uncle takes one of my old scopes..? My scope is a C9.25 & I hope to get into LRGB imaging soon with an OAG & filter wheel. So I have to consider all of this hanging off the end of the scope! I`m aware of Moonlite`s reducer holder & the Ted Agos solution..I`m in Australia so temperatures here are the reverse of yours!

Mark.

On 15/02/2010, at 7:08 AM, Peter Tattersall wrote:

Email doesn't guarantee delivery times or delivery order, so your latest message arrived in my mailbox before your earlier messages.

I used the Moonlite with the DC Servo motor focus on a William Optics FLT 110 TMB and I've been very happy with it and the LazyFocus. The system is the low end of their motor focus options and doesn't have absolute positioning. It's recommended for visual use, but I have used it for manual imaging. Ordinarily I use it with a laptop and check the image on the laptop in order to achieve focus. Because it isn't an absolute system you can't calibrate it for a temperature range and dial in the focal distance you need, but instead have to move it to the position by eye and then adjust manually as temperatures change. In my urban location subs longer than 2 minutes are pretty much impossible, so adjusting the focus from time to time isn't as much of a chore as it might be if I had longer subs to work with. I experimented a couple of times with remote control via VNC, but I haven't done enough of that to be fully comfortable with the process. If you want full automation you need to go with one of Moonlite's stepper motor options. From what I can see, the controller options you suggest would work fine with the DC motor, but I'm not sure about the stepper motor. Lacey's controller can handle both.

Moonlite has an even higher-end system with an ASCOM-compliant controller which would of course not work on the Mac under OS X, but if they are willing to give details of the command set it wouldn't be hard to run up a program to control it. Craig Stark's software might handle it already.

I haven't been doing much with the setup lately as I added a 9.25 SCT to the mount and only put the 110 back on the mount (in a side-by-side arrangement) around the middle of November. Since I'm a wimp for temperature, I haven't been out since the first frost which hit around the same time. There's still more setup work to be done to get everything operational once spring comes, so it's going to be a while before I'm back up and running.

On 2010-02-14, at 12:42 PM, Mark Gaffney wrote:

> Peter, ...Here`s a couple of previous messages which apparently didn`t
> send somehow...
>
> Hi Peter,
> It was the Moonlite CS SCT focuser ($245) I was looking at with a
> 1.25" brass compression ring eyepiece adapter($35) & DC servo drive
> Motor focus($150) which should work with Shoestring Focus from Stark
> Labs & a Mac. I even bought the FCUSB box back then & cables..
>
> Mark.
>
> Hi Peter,
> I thought from my previous enquiries into Moonlite SCT focusers (I
> can`t remember the serial number they give these) that Shoestring
> focus will work with these if you have an FCUSB focusing box...I may
> go back in that direction myself (Moonlite)..!
>
> Mark.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

Peter Tattersall
ptatters@zerobyzero.ca
http://www.zerobyzero.ca/Skewed/
Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.
-- Benjamin Franklin