I’ve been trying to retire my two ST80’s for several years now. I have better quality short tube refractors. The first to be modified with an aftermarket
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. However, please note that this is a relatively weak feature of this otherwise excellent product. 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. This is probably a minor annoyance since most people will not use this feature very often.
~ Guan Sheng Optical
Which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Admittedly I had some problems with the similar aftermarket
One cold January night I decided to take the Sky-Watcher ST80 out for a quick grab and go session. Due to a physical disability I often remain seated while orienting the
I wasn’t totally sure what had happened. I did have an idea that nothing had broken or sheared off though.
Allowing it to detach slightly from the V-ring/flange plate which is secured into the
As a consequence, the more the single screw is loosened, the focuser becomes slightly more detached from the plate. The
I wasn’t totally sure what had happened. I did have an idea that nothing had broken or sheared off though.
I took the now bisected parts of the
Later I got to analyse what went wrong. Well, apart from having a screw (too) loose, something that seems to happen to me a lot. The entire focuser is basically attached to the
Although instead of rectifying this at the time I resorted to pushing the focuser more square before attempting to rotate. I gradually loosened the thumbscrew. Luckily nothing dropped onto the ground or was damaged. I feel more confident now I understand the ins and outs of the focuser mechanism, so to speak. The ST80’s might not get retired quite yet after all.