1/1/2024 0 Comments Orion st80![]() ![]() Luckily nothing dropped onto the ground or was damaged. Instead of rectifying this by pushing the focuser more square before attempting to rotate, I gradually loosened the thumbscrew. When the OTA was more or less upright the slightly detached focuser can hang at a canted angle causing it to stick. The entire focuser is basically attached to the OTA base plate with one thumbscrew. Well, apart from having a screw (too) loose, something that seems to happen to me a lot. Sure enough the focuser separated from that too! Undeterred I took that inside as well and finished the session with my 72ED DS Pro. I set the Orion scope up the same way and attempted the same procedure as before. I took the now bisected parts of the SW ST80 back to the house and replaced it with the Orion ST80. I did have an idea that nothing had broken or sheared off though. So much so that to my astonishment the entire focuser, diagonal, reflex sight and 30mm SuperView came off in my hand! The focuser rotation was quite stubborn and I increasingly loosened the screw. The OTA was pointed up at an altitude not far from the zenith. Allowing it to detach slightly from the flange plate which is secured into the OTA itself by three screws.Īs a consequence the more the single screw is loosened the focuser becomes slightly more detached from the plate. When these focusers rotate a single thumbscrew loosens the entire focuser assembly. As I was rotating the GSO focuser it stuck. There is usually no problem with my other scopes equipped with rotating focusers. Due to a physical disability I often remain seated while orienting the OTA to view a specific target. On the 8th of January I decided to take the Sky-Watcher ST80 out for a quick grab and go session. Which is agreeably lightweight in the diagonal and gives about five and a quarter arc minutes of true field. The predominant eyepiece being a 30mm GSO SuperView. To further simplify things I usually only take a couple of eyepieces out with it at most. It is robust, uncomplicated, and comparatively light to carry. When the conditions are not optimal, and there is no Moon, the ST80 is good for occasional rich field observing sessions. This eventually led to its replacement with a different make of focuser. Admittedly I had some problems with the similar aftermarket GSO focuser on my ST102. Which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. This is probably a minor annoyance since most people will not use this feature very often. We inspect every single focuser and tweak/lube it as much as we can, but the rotation is often not smooth over the entire 360-degrees and may bind in a few spots, requiring additional effort to rotate it. However, please note that this is a relatively weak feature of this otherwise excellent product. These focusers are rotatable, i.e., you can turn the entire focuser body/diagonal/eyepiece combination into a better observing position by loosening or tightening a large silver thumbscrew on the top of the focuser. Apparently Guan Sheng Optical are not particularly enthusiastic about the feature either: Moreover, the focuser could additionally be rotated although I didn’t normally use this option. This not only improved the focusing abilities it also enabled 2” accessories to be utilised. The first to be modified with an aftermarket GSO focuser (as TS Optics) was the Orion ST80. I have better quality short tube refractors. I’ve been trying to retire my two ST80’s for several years now. ![]()
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