Second Hand Hitec Astro DC Focus Contoller

Second Hand Hitec Astro DC Focus Contoller in good condition. We have tested the unit to ensure it is working as it should. 3 months warranty included.

Please note this model has had the original 12V Cigarette connection cable removed and changed to a standard 2.1mm pin connection. 

The Hitec Astro DC Focus Controller allows you to accurately control a focus motor on your telescope via the hand controller or PC .

Hitec believe they have produced the finest digital DC focus controller available, specially designed and extensively tested to support the ‘Sky-Watcher’, ‘JMI’ and Meade #1209 zero shift focusers.

Sockets for the motors are standardised on the high quality CNC machined housing.  Additionally manual focus buttons are included so you can use your Hitec DC Focus unit even when its not connected to a PC.

Of course, it’s when connected to a PC via USB2.0 that HitecDCFocus comes into its own.

The specially written software provides exquisite control over your focus motor.  The minutest of focus motion can be achieved by adjusting the parameters of the software to your needs.

The bundled dedicated software provides a vast amount of options to satisfy the most demanding of astronomers.Everything from the speed of the focuser to the frequency the motor operates at can be controlled.  There’s also a ‘simulated’ step mode which emulates a stepper based control in function.

It should be noted that all DC motors are NOT capable of repeated absolute positioning. Unlike stepper motors which can be commanded to move a fixed number of steps, DC motors can only be turned on and off for a period of time.  This limits their use for auto focusing.  Hitec have tested this with auto focus software and got very good results.

If the highest level of auto focus is what you want we recommend our new range of stepper motor based controllers.

Where this DC focuser excels is in providing the finest hands off control over your focus procedure.  The DC motor can either be slewed by pushing the buttons on either or software or the unit itself.  Depending on the settings you can either operate in continuous mode where the focuser will move until the button is released or our simulated step mode allows the focuser to be moved in equal steps for each push of the button.  The amount the focuser moves for each step is fully controllable through the speed and steps parameters of the software.

During development it was amazing just how small a movement could be achieved using the software.  This far exceeds what can be done by hand focusing and makes the process of accurately focusing a CCD camera simple and painless (well as painless as your local seeing conditions will allow!!)

We think planetary imagers will be particularly interested since anyone who’s tried to focus on planets at high magnifications will know that even touching the telescope causes impossible vibration of the image. By reducing the speed of the focuser and adjusting the frequency of the motor to suit your set-up you can achieve vibration free focusing even at the highest of F ratios.

We haven’t forgotten about visual observers.

Again focusing at high magnifications can be achieved even with the highest power eyepieces.  The addition of slew buttons on the unit itself means that even if you don’t wish to take a PC to your dark site, you can use HitecDCFocus.  If you do bring a PC, the integrated night vision mode will help ensure your dark adaptation is not compromised.

Hitec have published an ASCOM compliant driver to compliment the software bundle. This allows HitecDCFocus to be used with any software which supports the ASCOM standard such as MaximDL. CCD Soft, Focus Max etc. (Please see the caveat regarding autofocusing).

In short, Hitec DC Focus is a quantum leap in functionality and use-ability from the standard motor hand controllers and when it comes to a comparison with manual ‘hand’ focusing, well there simply is none!! 

Once you’ve focused with this controller you will never want to touch your focus wheel ever again!

Some items that are showing as in stock are in stock at our holding warehouses, not at the shop. To double check the stock levels at the shop, please contact us on 01909774369 or sales@rothervalleyoptics.co.uk.

The delivery times for most items is 1 - 2 days but again, please double check stock levels on important orders before placing an order via the website.

The delivery costs for courier next day are for mainland UK only. If you live in the Scottish Highlands/Islands, Channel Islands or Northern Ireland, then a shipping surchage will apply. please contact us for prices. Smaller items can still go 1st class via Royal Mail.

Please note that if you are wanting to take advantage of our Saturday and Sunday timed services or next day pre 12 or pre 10:30 services, you MUST check that the stock is here at the shop before placing orders. Also, orders using the Saturday and Sunday services must be placed before 1pm the previous working day. Also, please remember to check that the stock is here at the shop before placing orders. If the stock is not at the shop, we won't be able to ship on any of the timed services. 

Please note International customers will need to contact us for a shipping price prior to ordering via the website. We don't ship all items internationally. It is at our discretion what we ship outside of the UK. This all depends on the size and weight of the items. Please get in touch with us for any postage costs. Please note we do NOT ship telescopes or heavy items outside of the UK. This is due to massive postage costs and problems regarding returns.

If you have any questions regarding stock levels or delivery, please get in touch.

Zygo Interferometer Testing For ED Refractor Telescopes!

We are extremely pleased to announce our Zygo Interferometer is now installed and ready for use! Our experienced staff can test refractor lenses up to 120mm aperture and provide a comprehensive 2 page report showing the optical quality and Strehl ratio, plus much more information. We are using the very latest Zygo MX software to provide a more detailed report compared to other standard reports.

The interferometer is essentially a measuring instrument. Within the interferometer is a calibrated laser that is pointed through the optical test surface, then onto a high quality reference sphere, then back through the test subject then to an internal camera which gives us the measurement on the screen. From this, we can adjust the position of the test optic and the reference sphere to obtain a perfectly calibrated system. The more central the laser to the test optic and then on return, the better and more accurate reading and measurement we can take. This takes a lot of adjustment to get the best results from the optical surface. Once the measurement has been taken, we are provided with a series of results that show the optical quality of the surface plus other information. Continue reading for an explanation of the individual values and you can also see a test report that was done on one of our RVO Horizon 60 OTAs. 

We are offering certain telescopes with a Zygo test at an extra cost. Mainly ED doublets and triplets. All available telescopes with a Zygo test report are listed here. Just select Zygo Test Report from the drop down box at the top of the listing and we will test the optics in house and provide a full 2 page report with your scope. This will show you the optical quality of your telescope optics. We can also offer this service on your refractor telescope. Please get in touch for more details about this. 

At Rother Valley Optics, one thing we pride ourselves on is customer service and quality of our equipment. When we test your telescope, we will ensure that it is of the highest quality otherwise, we will reject the scope under our strict quality control and test another model for your peace of mind. One of the main values to look at when testing a refractor is the Strehl ratio. The higher this number, the higher quality lens you have. At Rother Valley Optics, we will guarantee the highest possible Strehl ratio for your telescope.  We will aim to provide 0.95 Strehl or higher on Takahashi, RVO Horizon, William Optics and many more! Generally, the higher the Strehl ratio, the lower the Astigmatism and Coma meaning a better image quality from your instrument. 

Other measurements such as the PV and RMS are important too. With these measurements, the lower the number the better as it shows less curvature on the lens. The flatter an optical lens, the better it will perform. The PV rating (Peak To Valley) is a measurement from the highest point (Peak) to the lowest point (Valley). From this we get the RMS (Root, Mean, Square). This is a similar figure to the PV and measured exactly the same way. The RMS is basically an average height difference from the PV so again, the lower the better. As you can see form the example below, we measured an RMS of just 0.027 wave which is a very good value.

We also measure the Power with our systems which is essentially the error from the reference sphere to the test optic. The reference sphere we use on our system is a very high quality sphere so the closer to zero the Power, the less error between the 2 elements thus ensuring a higher quality optical surface. 

You will also see some more values such as Astigmatism and Coma. Again, these are measured by the interferometer when we take measurements of the optical surface after adjustment. These are values which ideally would be at 0 but as our test optics are all curved lenses, there will always be astigmatism and coma present. The lower the number, the less of these aberations you will effectively see but with most refractors, you can buy field flatteners which will compensate for the coma anyway. The astigmatisms value is explaining the error between the symmetrical curvature of the lens. Basically, no lens will be perfectly symmetrical, the lower the astigmatism, the more symmetrical the lens surface is. 

Once the Zygo test report has been completed, the optical alignment is thoroughly tested and tuned to ensure they are spot on before they leave us. 

All available telescopes are on the website at the link below and ones we've tested already that are available straight away are also listed.

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/zygo-tested-refractors.html

Here is an example of the test what we provide. This was a test on one of our Horizon 60 ED OTA's.

For any questions about this amazing new service, please either call 01909774369 or email sales@rothervalleyoptics.co.uk.

Are you interested in this product but would like to speak to someone with some more information? Simply fill in the form below and we will get back to you as soon as we can!

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