I've waited 60 years for this! FTF3545.

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I couldn't resist it: 😊

It really needed a suitable video which conveyed the sense of fantasy and the dream-like qualities of childhood. So I made a video myself using an old, secondhand shop window turntable. Bought for a fiver from a flea market. So long ago I'd completely forgotten I still had it. The music suggests a fairy story of wishful thinking as the focuser performs gentle arabesques. I've waited a very long time for a big focuser to match a big telescope of my own. The FTF3545 absolutely dwarfs my Vixen 2" focuser!

Do you remember window shopping as a kid? When you'd press your nose against the cold glass to admire some forbidden delight in the toy shop window. You'd go inside and hover beside the item on display. You wanted it so much you could almost taste it.

It always had to be something completely beyond your pocket money allowance or even that special Christmas present. Something so completely unattainable that you almost ached to own it. To handle it and to make it yours. To embed it in your wildest fantasies. To be the envy of all your school friends. [Assuming you still had any.]

Before I ordered this thing I had no idea as to most of the details.

How on earth did it fit onto an OTA. Absolutely no idea.
How big was it really? Still no idea but I could well imagine.
How were end caps fitted? No idea but I needed one anyway.
How big were the end caps? No idea, but they were bound to be impressive. And were!
How big a hole did it need in the back plate to clear the massive drawtube? No idea but I opted for 110mm after losing my nerve on 100mm. Still only just enough clearance it seems. That's over 4.3"! 

I think you get the idea now. A browse of the manufacturer's website won't help much. It offers precious little, useful information and no real measurements to speak of. Their standard system is to supply a suitable base adapter which screws into the focuser's rotating collar. The dedicated OTA does the rest with a matching thread on the main tube. With a mating bevel on the adapter to ensure focuser alignment. Easy peasy if you had the necessary funds.

What if you lacked a matching OTA, what then? The tiny images of the adapters left more open questions than answers. I pored over them and looked at the European prices and couldn't make any sense or [worse] make my mind up. In the end I ordered an adapter in the form of a custom base ring and a Baader Clicklock 2" socket end cap from T-S to save some money.

Full marks to Michael at Teleskop-Express for being so helpful. And to UPS for a swift, two day delivery between Germany and Denmark so that I could, finally, handle my new toy after more than half a century of longing.

My first focuser was all brass, flanged and push-pull, with RAS threads. It fitted on the end of my 1/2 diopter, [2m F/L] simple, spectacle lens, 60mm objective in a very long, skeleton tube. Which was literally hung over the washing line post in our shared, back garden.

I was a young teenager and saw [very briefly] a huge, wobbling and very colourful Saturn and its rings at ~160x with a simple lens, 1/2" eyepiece.I still have it and the Plasticine coated objective lens. The only way I could hold it in the telescope with my limited skills and tools. A padsaw handle with a worn and broken hacksaw blade, belonging to my father, was used to saw out the plywood baffles.

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