Wayne,

I replaced the Antares/GSO two speed on my Antares 1529 in April with a 2" Dual
Rate MoonLite CF. There was no problem with the collimation with the import two
speed before and the MoonLite needed no adjustment after it was installed. Warp
makes some good points but if the OTA is squared there should be no need to
adjust the collimation after installing the MoonLite. I recall that some of the
Orion ED80 scopes that were reviewedby owners over on CN did have issues with
collimation caused by the very things Warp has mentioned. It doesn't sound like
this ED80 had a problem till after the focuser was replaced. MoonLite's data
sheet provided with my focuser says

"All focusers are factory collimated dead on before we ship them and do not
require any adjustment. The only time collimation should be changed is if the
OTA has some kind of defect causing the focuser to sit slanted on the tube."

Warp seems to think these tube defects are the norm I have not found this to be
true in any of the scopes that I replaced focusers. Here are some additional
scopes I swapped focusers on over the years;

Synta 80mm f/5 1 1/4" R&P replaced with 2" R&P
Vixen f/6.5 VX102ED 2" R&P replaced by 2 speed Crayford
Stellarvue 80mm f/6 Nighthawk 2" R&P replaced by 2 speed Crayford
Stellarvue f/8.7 SV102BV single speed Crayford replaced by Feather Touch
Stellarvue 80mm f/7 Aplanat swapped 2" R&P with 2 speed Ceayford from 80mm f/6
NHII Todd Gross bought the NHII with the R&P it was still in collimation after
shipping it to Utah.

None of the above had defective tubes.

I suggested the OP contact MoonLite because there is a good chance the focuser
was damaged in shipping. Let Ron make the call as to whether the unit needs to
go back or the problem can be fixed by the owner.

David

--- In orion-telescopes@yahoogroups.com, "WayneG." <im66skidoo@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > If you simply going to accept the collimation from the factory, then
> > you are assuming that every other physical property just happens to be
> > perfect (rare). The only way to is to test with a laser or crosshair
> > to ensure that the focuser is dead on with the exact center of the
> > objective.
> >
> > Unless you are sending the entire scope back to Moonlight - there is
> > no way (other than by chance at which point you should go buy a
> > lottery ticket), that the focuser can be exactly collimated for your
> > scope.
> > Also... As a followup... if you wanted to be absolutely perfect in
> > this alignment or as close to perfect as possible, you also need to
> > make sure that the crosshair site tube or laser is precisecly centered
> > in the focuser. Most focusers use either a single thumscrew to hold
> > the eyepiece or a compression ring. Both of these will push the
> > eyepiece, sight-tube or laser slightly to one side and off center.
>
> All good points, Warp. Even though it was claimed the problems did not
> appear until the new Moonlite was added, as was said earlier, I would go
> back and confirm everything with a sight tube. I don't trust lasers for
> this because they are usually not very accurate and even my $250
> Lasermax, I test it in an engine lathe before using for things like
> this. At least it can be adjusted.
>
> Even if all else is right, just the act of tightening down lock screws
> can throw off the squaring on of any alignment tool. I ran into this
> time and again last winter trying to sort out alignment issues with an
> EON80 and Premium 102.
>
> Regards,
>
> WayneG
>