Average Rating (7 Reviews): | |
Super stable focussing platform and exemplary support from FLO Sunday, 16 August 2020 | Andy
I bought this as a major upgrade to the rather nasty Skywatcher rack and pinion on my 2005 vintage Orion Optics 8" Newtonian. You do need to be able to drill four holes in the right places on your OTA and the attachment process seems unnecessarily fiddly but once done this provides a super stable focussing platform. The fine focussing is excellent - finally I can achieve focus in real time rather than having to guess through all the wobbling where focus will probably be. The first sample FLO sent me was slightly sticky but they provided exemplary support and I was soon up and running with a nice smooth version. I had a whole list of things I thought I might need to upgrade (including the mount) but the changes to my set up using this focusser are night and day and should keep me happy for some time yet. Not cheap but money well spent.
Monday, 17 February 2020 | Ronald
An addition to my mn190 which will improve my
Imaging setup a great deal. A powerful and reliable focuser is essential, and the Steel track certainly is all that.
Just need to strive to add the Steel drive now. Need to save up for that 😁
Quality focuser and fast delivery Wednesday, 29 January 2020 | Terry
As always, ordering from FLO is easy (to easy according to my financuial controller), delivery was quick and they will always be my first port of call for astro gear. The SteelTrack focuser is beautifully made, has a quality feel to it, and seems rock solid. Fitting wasn't too difficult, although it was not helped by Baader inexplicably putting a 1.25 mm allen key into the box where a 1.5 mm key was needed to undo the grub screws holding the body in place - most of us have loads of allen keys lying around so it wasn't a big issue, and I'm sure a 1.25 mm allen key will come in handy for something! The other problem I faced is that you do need additional shims to fit the focuser to anything less than an 8 inch tube - I was fitting this to a 150P-DS. The confusion was that there are shims included in the package, but these are only good for down to an 8 inch tube, anything less requires additional shims (I'm sure the Baader site does say this somewhere to be fair), or cobbling something together as I did.
Monday, 31 December 2018 | Mark
The quality is far superior to the dual speed one I had on my 200P, which used to flop about when the scope was moved. Just waiting for a clear night to try it out.
I will say it comes with no instructions, I watched a video on how to do it on youtube, which helped but the holes did not match up with the ones on my scope. Luckily I'm quite handy at DIY.
Baader Diamond Steeltrack NT Friday, 30 November 2018 | Brendan
Recently purchased and fitted the Diamond Steeltrack NT to my
Quattro 12S and what an upgrade. No slippage or flexure whatsoever, the build quality is superb, carries camera, filter wheel and OAG with ease, a fantastic upgrade from the standard Skywatcher standard unit which is not up to the task of F4 imaging. I also fitted a DIY stepper motor to the focuser for imaging which works perfectly. As a test I sat 5.5kg directly on top on the drawtube and lifted it up and down vertically with zero slippage and perfect repeatability so Baaders capacity claim stands up. Unfortunately the mounting holes are not Skywatcher compatible thus requires redrilling the OTA but that's an easy task for anyone with basic mechanical skills. As usual first class service from FLO, a pleasure to do business with.
Tuesday, 9 October 2018 | Yoann
Great quality from FLO, very well packaged, quickly deliverd !
The focuser seems of great quality.
I'm happy with this purchase and with FLO
Beautiful piece of engineering Monday, 1 October 2018 | Mark
If you're used to stock focusers as I am then it's easy to appreciate how much better than the standard one that came with my Skywatcher 200P this is. So smooth and solid, lovely design and with no sign of slipping even without using the lock screw. Handles a CCD camera and filter wheel with ease.
The installation instructions on the Baader site are wrong though! The focuser is designed to replace the one on an 8 inch Newtonian, especially Skywatcher, and there's no way the attachment holes on the focuser line up with the existing holes on the tube - so you can't position the focuser using them. Also you need one set of shims to pack it out as well. Maybe it's an age/model thing - my old focuser was the single speed Crayford.
That said, it's still fairly easy to install.