Hi everyone.
It seems like the aperture bug bit me and I have upgraded from my Ultima 8 to an 11 sct mounted on an Orion Atlas! What a big difference (and heavy). Anyways, the person i bought the OTA from had previously installed a WO focuser. I decided I wanted to experiment with a focal reducer to get a "faster" scope. First night out I used it with the focuser and eyepiece in a straight through configuration and found that I only had to move the primary focus on the OTA a few turns to achieve focus. All is well and good with the world. Although it looks funny behind the WO focuser I decided to leave it on. NEXT NIGHT i put a right angle on and find that I had to CRANK the focuser on the OTA Wayyyyyyyy (in/out not sure) to achieve focus. The WO focuser had the effect of blurring the stars even more out of focus as I cranked it out. It almost seems like the focal length wants to be SHORTER. I didn't like that I had to crank the mirror the entire way (out/in?) to get focus with aa right angle.. Is there a way I can just keep the reducer on and have it be convenient for both visual and astrophotography work? Can someone explain if I should ditch the WO focuser in favor of a simple visual back and rely on the OTA focuser only. Would that be a better solution to this convenience issue. Or said in another way would it be better just to put a standard 1.25 visual back on it and be done with the WO focuser? Those things are heavy and LONG! Hope I am making sense here. Any suggestions would be appreciated.