I upgraded to this Moonlite 2" crayford design focuser for a few reasons. The initial reason was that the compression ring clamp that came with the Explore Scientific scope didn't compress very well. The reducer I have has a beveled edge, and it just wouldn't grab it tight enough. The weight of the camera made the reducer shift in place, which made artifacts show up in my images from the shift. Secondary reason is that the built in drawtube is not very long, which means that to switch between imaging and visual, you have to add and remove extension tubes. With the Moonlite, the drawtube is 4.5" long and can accommodate both lengths just by rolling it in and out to the desired length. No more threading black extension tubes onto a black drawtube in the dark.

Installation was very straight forward. The focuser is collimated at the factory, so I only need to unbolt the 6 hex screws where it meets the OTA tube, and then replace them with the new focuser. Took about 10 minutes. My only gripe would be that I wish they included the allen wrench required for putting in the new screws.

There are a few options you can order. I did the dual rate focuser, with focuser lock, and two vixen style mounts for finder scopes or laser pointers. Additionally you can add a stepper motor and electronic control for focusing from your computer. This is something I'll likely add later, but so far I've not had any issues with losing focus during the night.