Customer Equipment Gallery

Over the many years I have used a variety of focusers, some good, and others not so good. Recently I tried a Feather Touch on my 10" Newtonion, which sees dual use as a visual scope in a dobsonion mount, and as an imaging scope on my AP mount. Wow is all I can say. Smooth as, and precise, I am glad I did. It was that good that when I received my Takahashi FC100 I knew I had to have one for that as well, so got the Tak Micro.

Not only is the product superb, but the folk that make them are as well. A small business, which is not too big to lose that personal touch.

I took several shots of the focuser and adapter on my Brandon 94 as dusk arrived last night.  I enjoyed some great views of Jupiter (belts and festoons visible) with that little 'scope and my University Optics Orthoscopic 5, 9 and 12.5mm eyepieces. I was also using a Vernonscope 2" 1/10 wave diagonal.  I'm using my 94 more than my Celestron 9.25, and a good part of that fact is due to the ease of focusing I now have!

I'm gathering my thoughts plus need to take some better pictures and then I'll post my review of the adapter on the Cloudy Nights, Astromart and Yahoo (refractor, Brandon) sites.

One very happy customer,

These pictures show a FTF2020BCR with and adapter for an Intes Micro MN86. The Feather Touch adapter (IMN-86) is easily installed into the existing base. It made for a nice upgrade on a very nice MakNewt.

This telescope is a Takahashi 152 that was retrofitted with a standard Feather Touch 3545 focuser. It uses a semi-custom adapter that can be screwed onto the existing OTA after the Takahashi focuser is removed. The travel matches the previous focuser and below is the customers comments.

“Last night was my first chance to take a look at
your 3.5" focuser for my Takahashi FS-152. To sum it
up in a single word...GORGEOUS!!! It looks like my
other Starlight focuser, only on steroids.
Workmanship, appearance, and quality scream
first-rate. Thank you so much for manufacturing such
exquisite focusers for our telescopes.”

These pictures show what ingenuity and talent can accomplish. Wolfgang Höhle is a very talented amateur and if you view the links you can see for yourself the creativity that he brings to the ATM community. Very modest tools, blended with creativity and an eye for perfection shows what can be achieved.  The product that he chose to use is a 2025BCR. Although the site links are in German he has many pictures that show his progress and procedures.

“What a beautiful instrument.
Thank you for this wonderful Feather Touch.
Many, many greetings!”

These pictures show our 3545 focuser on a Stellarvue 152 APO Triplet. It’s owner Ross Solomone uses it for both visual and imaging. A mirror grinder from decades ago and owner of many different telescopes, Ross has had a long time passion for astronomy.

Astro-Physics 155mm refractor with an 80mm Astro-Physics guide refractor. The AP 155 uses a Starlight Instruments 3545 heavy duty focuser with mm focusing scale and the Feather Touch motorized digital focusing accessory.

This combination allows for precise remote focusing from a computer console seventy-five feet away from the telescope. A SBIG ST10 camera is used for imaging deep sky objects and a SBIG STV is used for guiding the Astro-Physics 1200 portable German equatorial mount. This combination of superb instruments and accessories yields first class results.

Pictures are the courtesy of:
Bob Karas 

Meade Instruments 16" LX-200 telescope on a custom made portable pier specifically designed for rapid polar axis alignment and rigidity. The 16" Schmidt Cassegrain employs two Starlight Instruments Feather Touch focusers along with a custom made mirror locking device to accurately position the main mirror and then fine focus the final image after mirror lock down.

This total instrument combination yields razor sharp images using a SBIG ST10 camera at F-10.

Pictures are the courtesy of:
Bob Karas

Pictures are the courtesy of: