This is a great tip for the wobbly focuser on the Orion Starblast. I tried it with the tape but after a couple of uses the tape started to come off. I tried a different technique and used very thin small strips of felt. The strips of felt came out of a Scratch and Scrape Protection kit for furniture. The kit includes a very thin felt pad with adhesive of the backing of the pad. I removed the focus slide from the main port and cut two small sections of the felt pad. I inserted the two small sections felt pad to both sides of the inner tube and the placed the focuser back into place. It worked great and it took all the play out of the focuser. The focuser now glides back and forth on the felt pad. Just remember that you only need one small section on each end of the inner tube.
Thanks for the tip! Just took my StarBlast focuser apart and did the fix with a roll of 2” blue masking tape I that I already had. You’ve got to love cheap and easy (but effective!) mods/repairs.
@@AstronomyGarageNoted. But, since this was so easy, it shouldn’t be a problem to replace the tape from time to time. In fact, I should be even faster and better at it next time. The hardest part is just staying out of the sticky grease. 😂
Hello, Mr. Dreese; I did something similar but I used a strip of clear plastic sheet as a shim, so to speak. I also used some other junk & a big plastic bowl to make as observer shield. I cut a hole in the bottom center to fit the focuser drawtube, painted it flat black, & cut away a section (~7" across on a side) to clear my chin when I peep the eyepiece. Voilà!, a stray light shield to prevent nearby lighting from interfering w/ observing. Really help when trying to get a good view & lighting intrudes. Have a GREAT day, Neighbor, & clear skies!
Really good to know. Thanks. I have not an Orion Starblast 4.5, but I do have two Orion Spaceprobe 130st OTAs and they are tight and I can focus my astro-camera and they take good photos. No focuser issues.
That's cool. I used medical tape as a product similar to paint tape. The adhesion did not deteriorate even when it was soaked with moisture from the night dew.
It's a fantastic little telescope with great optics. Such a shame that they paired it with such a frustrating focuser. Good luck. Let me know how it goes!
We got the 4.5EQ version, and it indeed has great optics. It also had the loose focuser tube. We got ours from a friend who's moving for $100, so no real complaints, other than the horrible mount. The tripod itself is sturdy enough, but the play is in the mount. I'm considering one as a gift for my son (because it's only $50 more than the 100mm Skyscanner table top reflector which can't be collimated, and for these pretty nice optics). It's amazing to me that with all the EQ mount gearing and metal that the table top version on a particle board Az/Alt dob type mount is so much more costly for the same scope. As for the painters tape fix, it should last a long time, even with some humidity. Focusing moves things slowly, and the blue tape is made to stay on surfaces even painting latex (water based) paint. Nice vid, as usual. Thanks!!
Thanks for watching. Both telescopes themselves are great optically, especially after the wobbly focuser fix. I decided to keep the Dobsonian version and it fits in the car as a carry-around telescope. The only remaining EQ mount I have is the wobbliest ever made - part of the infamous Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ (making a two-part video about that). By the way, I have another video that shows how to quickly turn your EQ version into an Alt/Azimuth version: ua-cam.com/video/-VX_u6DMMhI/v-deo.html
@@AstronomyGarage, Thanks. I've previously seen (and "liked") that video. I might eventually try to mount the rings to something Alt/Az, but just haven't dealt with it yet. I've been using the XT8 and now AD12 more this summer into fall. I do use all of my scopes, and like the middle ground aperture of the 4.5 for some objects, especially open clusters. Even the 76mm with dubious spherical mirror or binocular are better on some clusters than the 8 or 12. Cr399 is great through the 8x50 finders!! Anyway, thanks again, and clear skies!
I picked up the EQ for cheap (with a Telrad instead of RDF!) so will be fixing the focuser tonight. Velvet flock in the focuser tube and behind the secondary, collimating knobs...all the usual.
I used aluminum HVAC tape and added it to the focuser instead of the tube, works a treat. The gooey grease is to prevent heavy eyepieces from causing slippage. I made a mistake removing the goo and replacing with lithium grease.
I have the similar Celestron Astromaster 114. It has a nicer focuser than this, but the Firstscope one looks exactly like this. I'm loving this channel.
If you still have the starblast on the WQ mount, if you look at the labels on each of the two scopes you will see that. the table top dob has a 113mm diameter aperture and the EQ version is 114mm. Just an odd fact I learned a few years ago.
@@AstronomyGarage I don't know. I find the differences quite strange myself. It seems that inflation is what drove the new version of the Starblast with its cheaper parts but that is a different subject. Do you know if the new Starblast is 13mm or 14 mm? The old ones like yours is 13 but is your friend's scope also 13mm?
Nice simple idea, but from what I understand the silver piece is always painted plastic. On my old telescope, the metal pinion stripped the plastic teeth on the rack... So I think that it's really important that not too much force is applied on the teeth.
On the higher end rack & pinions, that rack is metal. However, they also still get stripped, just less often. I have a video planned to show my cheap solution to this problem (it's very common).
Where was this video two years ago!!?? :) I have this little scope. It's what got me into AP. Coma on an ASI585mc is atrocious, so I'm making a 3D printed adapter for a Skywatcher 2" crayford focuser + coma corrector. I think this thing, for the price (+upgrades) could be an 80mm apo killer. It may need a bit larger secondary mirror for AP. There once was an AP version of this scope with a larger secondary.
That seems like a quick reasonable solution though I would opt for a better quality replacement focuser. One could also modify it or make a focuser. Seems like Orion should replace the focuser with a better quality focuser FOC.
I was gifted a free orion 4.5 eq newt from my mother and the focuser threads were totally busted and the internal lens in the focuser tube was stained really bad. It just won't focus and the complaint abt it from like 25 yo was that it "didn't focus" then either. It was purchased in like 1998, soo... What focuser would be a replacement option? It is totally shot. This fix is inadequate, while v smart, for the issues w this particular focuser. I think my dad or brother tried fixing and made it worse. Thanks for the recommendations for replacement. I love this scope, and the focuser needs to go.
I suspect that the gear rack is ripped off of your focuser tube? There are cheap fixes, but I don't think you'd like them. You can buy cheap rack & pinion focuser tubes on AliBaba as replacements. Just search there and find the one that looks the most similar.
Thanks for the tip. I just got a starblast (I'm a newbie). What do you recommend for the best views of planets with this telescope? I have a 7-21 zoom eyepiece and just got a wide angle 20mm after watching that video of yours.
Congrats - the Starblast is a fantastic telescope. Many of them that size have a spherical mirror, but the Starblast has the upgraded parabolic mirror. I have the SVBony 7-21 Zoom (and the 20mm wide angle). They both work well in the Starblast. You'll probably end up dialing the zoom down to 7mm when viewing planets. If you throw a 2x Barlow in between the telescope and your eyepiece, that 7mm can become a 3.5mm eyepiece. That might be pushing the limit on this telescope, but it would be worth a try.
With a 3.5mm eyepiece you are still within the optics limits, once again it’s the focuser what isn’t up to par because of its lack of precision. Great video…and telescope, I still have and use mine and like it a lot
**** CAUTION!!! - CAUTION!!! **** See below. I'm glad I found this video! With the Eclipse of 2024 coming up, I've been getting my Orion Starblast 4.5 ready to go (last time used was the Eclipse of 2017). I started collimating and noticed how horribly loose and wobbly the focuser slip was. Which makes collimating near impossible. Especially with a laser collimater. As I was searching online, I found this video. I was like, YES!, a simple fix with tape!. Boy was I wrong about the "simple fix" part. This video mentions using some "painter's tape", which is also called "masking" tape. Of course I have some, so I put on one layer, and so far so good, but still a bit loose. Second layer, and..... WRECK! Because this tape is basically paper with adhesive, the focuser didn't move very well due to friction, and the metal wheel broke the PLASTIC teeth off of the focuser slip. Yes, the focuser slip on these is plastic while everything else around it is metal. And to top it off.... the Starblast 4.5 has been discontinued and there are no parts available for it anymore. Great, 2-weeks before the eclipse this has to happen. I had to take the entire focuser assembly off of the telescope tube to get the focuser slip out of the focuser from the other end that goes inside the tube as it looked like the tape already started to tear and bind up inside the focuser, and I couldn't get the focuser slip out of the top. Which may have contributed to the teeth breaking off. **** THE (temporary for me) FIX was to purchase a used Starblast 4.5 telescope from eBay for parts (just for the focuser slip). I then purchased some UHMW tape from Amazon. UHMW is about the slickest, least friction tape you can buy. People use it for drawer slides, etc. So with this tape on the focuser slide, just one layer at 5-mil thickness was enough to tighten the focuser up, and the slickness reduces the friction, which reduces the risk of breaking the teeth again. So take my expensive mistake and go for some slick tape instead of cheap tape lol. Now my telescope is ready for the eclipse. Another fix is to use this video creator's broken teeth fix video if you want to go that route. I did not. Now for the PERMANENT fix, was to buy a whole new focuser assembly from AgenaAstro.com for the 1.25" eye pieces. They only have one size focuser base in the 1.25" which fits I believe 6"-8" scopes. And it's all steel, and tight construction. So no looseness, no plastic teeth to break. And it doesn't even use teeth as it is the Crayford style that uses friction instead. This will also fit the Starblast 4.5 with a little modification. You'll need to widen the focuser hole in the telescope tube. You'll need to drill new holes for the focuser base. You will also need some foam tape to put under each end of the new focuser base since the radius is a bit bigger than what the Starblast 4.5 uses. And then you'll likely need new (longer) mounting screws/nuts as the new base is thicker. So I will be installing that after the eclipse has passed. The focuser really is the weakest link in an otherwise decent telescope for the price. Thanks for reading.
Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear that the second layer of tape did this in for you. Please don't throw that focuser away though. You can convert it into a pseudo-Crayford with some food-grade tubing and a file: ua-cam.com/video/CQan05G4Fgo/v-deo.html
Good idea, actually. I think scotch tape might actually work better since it is stickier than painters tape. Mine is holiding up so far, but I think your's should last longer.
Why do the Big brand name Telescope companies bother to sell such Horrible fitting Plastic junk ?? ....90 weight Axle can't fix everything !! .....Use proper Fitting Metal parts with a Functional design priced a few bucks more.....Having to "Tape up" a new $230 scope is just Wasting $$ Stupid.....
This is a great tip for the wobbly focuser on the Orion Starblast. I tried it with the tape but after a couple of uses the tape started to come off. I tried a different technique and used very thin small strips of felt. The strips of felt came out of a Scratch and Scrape Protection kit for furniture. The kit includes a very thin felt pad with adhesive of the backing of the pad. I removed the focus slide from the main port and cut two small sections of the felt pad. I inserted the two small sections felt pad to both sides of the inner tube and the placed the focuser back into place. It worked great and it took all the play out of the focuser. The focuser now glides back and forth on the felt pad. Just remember that you only need one small section on each end of the inner tube.
Fantastic tip! Thank you for sharing. I did have to replace the tape once, so I'll keep an eye on how long it lasts. The felt idea is very clever.
Thanks for the tip! Just took my StarBlast focuser apart and did the fix with a roll of 2” blue masking tape I that I already had. You’ve got to love cheap and easy (but effective!) mods/repairs.
Glad it helped. The StarBlast is such a good telescope. I've found that I had to replace the tape eventually after several months of use.
@@AstronomyGarageNoted. But, since this was so easy, it shouldn’t be a problem to replace the tape from time to time. In fact, I should be even faster and better at it next time. The hardest part is just staying out of the sticky grease. 😂
Wow. I love learning simple mods & fixes. Can’t wait to get my own star blast scope!
It's a great telescope for the money, especially in a dark sky. Thanks for watching!
Hello, Mr. Dreese;
I did something similar but I used a strip of clear plastic sheet as a shim, so to speak.
I also used some other junk & a big plastic bowl to make as observer shield.
I cut a hole in the bottom center to fit the focuser drawtube, painted it flat black, & cut away a section (~7" across on a side) to clear my chin when I peep the eyepiece.
Voilà!, a stray light shield to prevent nearby lighting from interfering w/ observing.
Really help when trying to get a good view & lighting intrudes.
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor, & clear skies!
That's a really good idea. I don't have light shields for my small Dobs, but they could definitely use them!
Really good to know. Thanks. I have not an Orion Starblast 4.5, but I do have two Orion Spaceprobe 130st OTAs and they are tight and I can focus my astro-camera and they take good photos. No focuser issues.
That is good to hear. Clear skies!
That's cool. I used medical tape as a product similar to paint tape. The adhesion did not deteriorate even when it was soaked with moisture from the night dew.
I didn't think about the dew impact. Medical tape should work even better. Thanks for watching, and clear skies!
Great video! I have a 6" StarBlast, I might need to look as it probably has the exact same focuser.
I'll be curious to see if it works. My hope would be that the 6 inch version doesn't have such a cheap focuser.
That’s ingenious! I have that scope and was indeed frustrated by the wobbly drawtube. Will definitely try that tomorrow.
It's a fantastic little telescope with great optics. Such a shame that they paired it with such a frustrating focuser. Good luck. Let me know how it goes!
We got the 4.5EQ version, and it indeed has great optics. It also had the loose focuser tube. We got ours from a friend who's moving for $100, so no real complaints, other than the horrible mount. The tripod itself is sturdy enough, but the play is in the mount. I'm considering one as a gift for my son (because it's only $50 more than the 100mm Skyscanner table top reflector which can't be collimated, and for these pretty nice optics). It's amazing to me that with all the EQ mount gearing and metal that the table top version on a particle board Az/Alt dob type mount is so much more costly for the same scope. As for the painters tape fix, it should last a long time, even with some humidity. Focusing moves things slowly, and the blue tape is made to stay on surfaces even painting latex (water based) paint. Nice vid, as usual. Thanks!!
Thanks for watching. Both telescopes themselves are great optically, especially after the wobbly focuser fix. I decided to keep the Dobsonian version and it fits in the car as a carry-around telescope. The only remaining EQ mount I have is the wobbliest ever made - part of the infamous Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ (making a two-part video about that). By the way, I have another video that shows how to quickly turn your EQ version into an Alt/Azimuth version: ua-cam.com/video/-VX_u6DMMhI/v-deo.html
@@AstronomyGarage, Thanks. I've previously seen (and "liked") that video. I might eventually try to mount the rings to something Alt/Az, but just haven't dealt with it yet. I've been using the XT8 and now AD12 more this summer into fall. I do use all of my scopes, and like the middle ground aperture of the 4.5 for some objects, especially open clusters. Even the 76mm with dubious spherical mirror or binocular are better on some clusters than the 8 or 12. Cr399 is great through the 8x50 finders!! Anyway, thanks again, and clear skies!
I picked up the EQ for cheap (with a Telrad instead of RDF!) so will be fixing the focuser tonight. Velvet flock in the focuser tube and behind the secondary, collimating knobs...all the usual.
Sounds like you got quite a deal! Nice catch with a Telrad. Please let me know if the tape fixes it up right. Clear skies!
I used aluminum HVAC tape and added it to the focuser instead of the tube, works a treat. The gooey grease is to prevent heavy eyepieces from causing slippage. I made a mistake removing the goo and replacing with lithium grease.
That's a great idea. Metal HVAC tape would hold its shape much better! Thanks for the helpful tip!
I have the similar Celestron Astromaster 114. It has a nicer focuser than this, but the Firstscope one looks exactly like this. I'm loving this channel.
Thanks for watching. Clear skies!
I have this one too. I just bought a Svbony focuser to replace the little red wagon that came with it. I'd like to make an eyepiece too.
Thank you for watching. Clear skies!
Great tip! Can't wait to try it out :)
Hope it helps! Clear skies!
If you still have the starblast on the WQ mount, if you look at the labels on each of the two scopes you will see that. the table top dob has a 113mm diameter aperture and the EQ version is 114mm. Just an odd fact I learned a few years ago.
That's pretty interesting. I wonder if it came down to a change in suppliers?
@@AstronomyGarage I don't know. I find the differences quite strange myself. It seems that inflation is what drove the new version of the Starblast with its cheaper parts but that is a different subject.
Do you know if the new Starblast is 13mm or 14 mm? The old ones like yours is 13 but is your friend's scope also 13mm?
Thank u sir 🧡 love from India 🇮🇳
Thank you for the kind words! Enjoy your telescope and have fun. Clear skies!
great tip alot new owners will find that handy
This telescope is surprisingly popular - hopefully people can make it even user-friendly with this fix.
I like your approach. This is just the kind of thing I would do to improve a telescope.
Thank you for watching! Clear skies!
Nice simple idea, but from what I understand the silver piece is always painted plastic. On my old telescope, the metal pinion stripped the plastic teeth on the rack... So I think that it's really important that not too much force is applied on the teeth.
On the higher end rack & pinions, that rack is metal. However, they also still get stripped, just less often. I have a video planned to show my cheap solution to this problem (it's very common).
I would like to see that, not going to lie 🙂@@AstronomyGarage
Where was this video two years ago!!?? :) I have this little scope. It's what got me into AP. Coma on an ASI585mc is atrocious, so I'm making a 3D printed adapter for a Skywatcher 2" crayford focuser + coma corrector. I think this thing, for the price (+upgrades) could be an 80mm apo killer. It may need a bit larger secondary mirror for AP. There once was an AP version of this scope with a larger secondary.
I hope this video proves to be helpful for your Starblast. :)
That seems like a quick reasonable solution though I would opt for a better quality replacement focuser. One could also modify it or make a focuser. Seems like Orion should replace the focuser with a better quality focuser FOC.
I agree. Perhaps in the future? Clear skies!
I was gifted a free orion 4.5 eq newt from my mother and the focuser threads were totally busted and the internal lens in the focuser tube was stained really bad. It just won't focus and the complaint abt it from like 25 yo was that it "didn't focus" then either. It was purchased in like 1998, soo...
What focuser would be a replacement option?
It is totally shot. This fix is inadequate, while v smart, for the issues w this particular focuser. I think my dad or brother tried fixing and made it worse.
Thanks for the recommendations for replacement.
I love this scope, and the focuser needs to go.
I suspect that the gear rack is ripped off of your focuser tube? There are cheap fixes, but I don't think you'd like them. You can buy cheap rack & pinion focuser tubes on AliBaba as replacements. Just search there and find the one that looks the most similar.
You can do a cleaner looking, smoother, more durable job with aluminum muffler tape from your favorite auto supply store.
That's a clever idea. It would keep the same color scheme. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the tip. I just got a starblast (I'm a newbie). What do you recommend for the best views of planets with this telescope? I have a 7-21 zoom eyepiece and just got a wide angle 20mm after watching that video of yours.
Congrats - the Starblast is a fantastic telescope. Many of them that size have a spherical mirror, but the Starblast has the upgraded parabolic mirror. I have the SVBony 7-21 Zoom (and the 20mm wide angle). They both work well in the Starblast. You'll probably end up dialing the zoom down to 7mm when viewing planets. If you throw a 2x Barlow in between the telescope and your eyepiece, that 7mm can become a 3.5mm eyepiece. That might be pushing the limit on this telescope, but it would be worth a try.
@@AstronomyGarage 👍 thank you!
With a 3.5mm eyepiece you are still within the optics limits, once again it’s the focuser what isn’t up to par because of its lack of precision.
Great video…and telescope, I still have and use mine and like it a lot
Wow, even Einstein gets impressed. What a revolutionary solution!!!
**** CAUTION!!! - CAUTION!!! **** See below.
I'm glad I found this video! With the Eclipse of 2024 coming up, I've been getting my Orion Starblast 4.5 ready to go (last time used was the Eclipse of 2017). I started collimating and noticed how horribly loose and wobbly the focuser slip was. Which makes collimating near impossible. Especially with a laser collimater. As I was searching online, I found this video. I was like, YES!, a simple fix with tape!. Boy was I wrong about the "simple fix" part.
This video mentions using some "painter's tape", which is also called "masking" tape. Of course I have some, so I put on one layer, and so far so good, but still a bit loose. Second layer, and..... WRECK! Because this tape is basically paper with adhesive, the focuser didn't move very well due to friction, and the metal wheel broke the PLASTIC teeth off of the focuser slip. Yes, the focuser slip on these is plastic while everything else around it is metal. And to top it off.... the Starblast 4.5 has been discontinued and there are no parts available for it anymore. Great, 2-weeks before the eclipse this has to happen. I had to take the entire focuser assembly off of the telescope tube to get the focuser slip out of the focuser from the other end that goes inside the tube as it looked like the tape already started to tear and bind up inside the focuser, and I couldn't get the focuser slip out of the top. Which may have contributed to the teeth breaking off.
**** THE (temporary for me) FIX was to purchase a used Starblast 4.5 telescope from eBay for parts (just for the focuser slip). I then purchased some UHMW tape from Amazon. UHMW is about the slickest, least friction tape you can buy. People use it for drawer slides, etc. So with this tape on the focuser slide, just one layer at 5-mil thickness was enough to tighten the focuser up, and the slickness reduces the friction, which reduces the risk of breaking the teeth again. So take my expensive mistake and go for some slick tape instead of cheap tape lol. Now my telescope is ready for the eclipse. Another fix is to use this video creator's broken teeth fix video if you want to go that route. I did not.
Now for the PERMANENT fix, was to buy a whole new focuser assembly from AgenaAstro.com for the 1.25" eye pieces. They only have one size focuser base in the 1.25" which fits I believe 6"-8" scopes. And it's all steel, and tight construction. So no looseness, no plastic teeth to break. And it doesn't even use teeth as it is the Crayford style that uses friction instead. This will also fit the Starblast 4.5 with a little modification. You'll need to widen the focuser hole in the telescope tube. You'll need to drill new holes for the focuser base. You will also need some foam tape to put under each end of the new focuser base since the radius is a bit bigger than what the Starblast 4.5 uses. And then you'll likely need new (longer) mounting screws/nuts as the new base is thicker. So I will be installing that after the eclipse has passed. The focuser really is the weakest link in an otherwise decent telescope for the price. Thanks for reading.
Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear that the second layer of tape did this in for you. Please don't throw that focuser away though. You can convert it into a pseudo-Crayford with some food-grade tubing and a file: ua-cam.com/video/CQan05G4Fgo/v-deo.html
I did something similar with scotch tape. Your idea likely works better.
Good idea, actually. I think scotch tape might actually work better since it is stickier than painters tape. Mine is holiding up so far, but I think your's should last longer.
Now that Orion Telescopes closed the only source will be the used market. Your links to Amazon show the product unavailable.
Thank you for that information. It's a very sad time in the telescope world.
Did you have to collimate the scope after doing this mod?
I didn't have to, but I did it just because I find it fun to collimate. :)
Apparently you haven't seen many of meade's plastic focusers. They are even worse
I wish these companies would not worry about cost effectiveness, and just make the best product.
In this case, I can't imagine it would've cost more that 50 cents to have a true fix. Clear skies!
I have one and the EQ mount is horrible. I took the tube off and put it on the Azi-gti mount
Agree. The optics are nice for an inexpensive scope, but the EQ mount is junk.
Teflon tape.
Did you have a comment about Teflon tape?
@@AstronomyGarageYes, I was recommending using Teflon tape for best results.
That isnt going to last very long and sounds very scratchy.
Why do the Big brand name Telescope companies bother to sell such Horrible fitting Plastic junk ?? ....90 weight Axle can't fix everything !! .....Use proper Fitting Metal parts with a Functional design priced a few bucks more.....Having to "Tape up" a new $230 scope is just Wasting $$ Stupid.....
The rest of this telescope is so nice - I really don't know why they chose such a cheap component. Perhaps profit margins are very thin?