Today I received another new toy. :)

Finally, after a long wait, I am now the proud owner of a Moonlite Focuser.The Standard one on the 200p, wasnt that tight. It slipped and wobbled a lot. Which made focusing hard, and collimation not that good either.

I took the old focuser off, and also removed the secondary mirror so I had more room to work.
While these where off, I also added some black flocking into the tube, to hopefully make the views a bit darker and add contrast.

Anyway, 1st thing... fit the universal mount.
This proved to be a bit of a pain in the backside, as the mount holes didnt line up perfectly.
They where about 1/2mm out. So had to widen two holes a bit.
Once this was done, and the mount was screwed in, the focuser fitted like a dream.
Now fitted I refitted the secondary mirror and began collimation.

I am now amazed at how solid the new focuser is, and collimation is now a breeze.
No wobbles at all, so I've managed to collimate the 200p better than ever before!

Roll on 1st light, hopefully tomorrow!!!!

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Small little update.
Finally last night, I had some clear dark skies.
Well sort of.  It was November the 5th!  Bonfire/Firework night in the uk.
This meant, flashes, bangs and smoke...
So no deep space imaging, unless I wanted a random rocket or puff of smoke drifting into the shot.

It was also quite a damp night too, so the dew on the scope was horrible!

I had a play with the NEQ6 for the 1st time though and managed to get the hang of setting it up and using the goto system, with some software called Stellarium helping me too.

Its the 1st time I managed to use the new DGM Optics NPB filter.  Not that there was anything to look at or shoot though.

So, just had a little play, nothing serious.

Managed some weak shots, totally un processed just trying out things.

Ring Nebula:

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                                                (The faint ring is just visible in the middle)

Hercules Cluster:

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                                (Out of focus and wrong filter... I'll get a good one next time!)

The Moon:

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                              (I wondered what the moon would look like with a Nebula Filter)