Was looking at the Moonlight Nightcrawler rotating focuser. I saw they have an Ascom driver but hearing from someone using this device successfully with SGPro would be very helpful
Thanks
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I have one but haven’t had a chance to use it (weather, out of town, waiting on adapters…) Hopefully this week if weather decides to play nice. It’s a nice piece of kit! Crazy overbuilt.
Jared
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Wow thanks Jared. That is a beast of a Focuser! Please keep this thread updated of your testing with SGPro and your Nightcrawler. Good luck with the weather.
Best
Dan
I’ve used a NiteCrawler since December 2016 with SGP and have had no problems with SGP using the focus or rotator features.
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I have a NC on my FSQ-106ED and it works very well with SGPro autofocus routine.
Focusing is repeatable even without backlash compensation.
I don’t think there is any meaningful backlash with NC.
However I wasn’t able to automate rotation.
The rotating direction is opposite between SGP and NC ASCOM driver.
I’m not sure how the rotation direction (i.e. clockwise is positive) is defined for ASCOM standard.
I’m about to contact Ron about it but I didn’t know Jared has a NC.
Jared could you shed some light on the ASCOM interface for rotators?
Thank you.
Donghun
How much back focus does that use up?
Compared to stock focuser, none. Actually think I gain some. Differs per scope. Initially I was worried about that then realized that the stock focuser is actually a little longer. It comes with like 3" of spacers as the focuser only has about 1" travel.
Jared
Thanks for all the feedback.
Homer seems to be using the rotator fine but donghun is having issues?
The Nitecrawler is a really nice looking piece of hardware. When did it come out? I bought an Optec Gemini focuser/rotator last spring for use on an EdgeHD 1400 and could have sworn it was the only creature of this sort at the time…
He had a prototype at NEAF last year but wasn’t manufacturing them yet. I think he started shipping them maybe around the beginning of 2017 or late 2016. Not 100% sure. The Optec units are nice too! Hard to go wrong with either.
Jared
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You should be able to reverse that in the NiteCrawler ASCOM Driver:
Thanks,
Jared
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That’s it!
Thank you Jared.
Sweet so no issues so far
I just received mine and will be moving it back and forth between my Orion ED80CF and my Orion EON 115mm refractors. What are you all’s settings in SGP? Just for informational (inquisitive) purposes…
Amazing, I was just looking into the nightcrawler and the SVQ 100 as well to go with my recently ordered Moravian 16200.
How does the SVQ/nightcrawler combo work?
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Hi - not sure what SVQ 100 is - the nightcrawler works great with SGP for
what it is worth. It also is really well build and thoughtfully built -
i.e. easy to mount, strong grip, good UI, etc. Highly recommended!
Actually was referring to Jared - Stellarvue SVQ 100 as in his photo.
I have used it considerably less than I would have preferred :-/ but I have had no issues with it what so ever! If I recall you need to reverse the rotation direction of the Nitecrawler for it to work with SGP.
I use it with 2 cameras and getting the spacing just right was a little difficult. Switching between the cameras is not “trivial” but it’s not super difficult either. Just have to get the right set of spacers in there. If you pick one up make sure you also order the Stellarvue → Nitecrawler adapter for the Stellarvue focuser tubes. Ron can let you know which one you need. This gives you more options on spacers.
I picked up both the scope and focuser at Neaf…well kind of. Scope came home with me and I sent the stock focuser home with Ron so he could make the correct adapter for the focuser. He got it back to me pretty fast though! You actually pickup a little bit of back focus when going to the Nitecrawler.
Jared
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It works very well with a FSQ106ED scope, and I have not had issues with swapping cameras at all (although the FSQ doesn’t really have a requirement for spacing). I do have flanges for both the FSQ106 and the TOA130, and can report that swapping flanges is actually fairly painless. Especially if you already know how many/which drawtube extenders you need for a given scope (my FSQ106 uses the 1" and .5", and the TOA uses the 1", 2" and .5").
Reducers do change the game, and you likely will need to use as few spacers as possible (again depending on your scope) my experience with the FSQ106 and the .73x Reducer QE is that I need to remove both drawtube extensions, remove the flange extender, and thread the WR35 to Tak72 adapter directly into the drawtube. This is likely an FSQ106 sspecific thing, as I know folks using the FSQ85 do not have this problem. Likewise, my TOA130 can usually come into focus fine without needing to remove too much.