The Jiffy Focuser

The Problem

Are your images always fuzzy? Can't seem to get them to snap like you've always wanted? Find it hard to get your focus just perfect?

Maybe your eyepieces need cleaning. Maybe its getting cloudy. Maybe you have Parkinson's Disease. Or maybe you need the Arnett Jiffy Focusing Enchancement System, now available at your nearest supermarket!

Now straight from our Labratories comes a real professsional quality Focusing Circle with the quality you've come to expect from Arnett, Arnett and Dunshee. No more trying to make fine, precise adjustments with a tiny little knob. Now you can have a high-quality focusing system that fits your hand perfectly reducing stress as it snaps your images into focus with the ease of a true professional instrument. And best of all, it's blue.

The Easy Solution

Now for a limited time you can have the Arnett Jiffy Focusing Enchancement System for only $279.99 (or six easy payments of $49.99 each). Mention this Web page and get an additional 10% off! (Some assembly required; batteries not included.)
Or build it yourself for the cost of a jar of peanut butter! ....

The Do-It-Yourself Solution

Ingredients

Quantity	Description
1	18 oz jar Jif Extra Crunchy peanut butter
1	rubber grommet
	glue

Instructions

Remove the lid from the peanut butter jar by twisting counter-clockwise.
Discard the peanut butter (the usual disposal method involves bread and jelly).
Drill a hole in the lid just large enough to fit the grommet.
Check the grommet to make sure it fits snugly (is that a word?) over your focuser knob and doesn't slip. If its too big go back to the store and buy a smaller one; if its too small ream it out a bit.
Install the grommet in the lid and secure with glue (you can substitute grape jelly for the glue; it will taste much better but make a horrible mess of the back of your scope.)
Wait for the glue to dry (this is the really boring part).
Push the finished Focusing System over your focuser knob and your ready to rock!

Testmonials

I followed Bill Arnett's instructions for a "Jiffy" focuser. I found a grommet made from PVC at a hardware store (auto section) which has an inside diameter of 5/8 inch, and this stretches just enough to fit over the focuser knob. The plastic lid from a "Jiffy" peanut butter jar with a hole bored out of the middle then "snaps" around the grommet. I didn't have a "Jiffy" lid, so I used Kraft, regular, unsweetened. It's blue, and it works better. ;-)
Seriously though, try it, its great! Good idea Bill. -- Michael J. Cook
I, too, made one of these things, but found that a peanut butter lid would have been way too big for my little 8"LX, so I used a 2" diameter plastic jar lid. It is white so it shows up well in the dark. -- Rob "Joystick" Roy
I put a scale on it with a sewing tape measure (the soft rollup kind). I cut the end off to the length of the circumference and hot glue it on. I also have a glow in the dark pointer cut from one of the stars that you stick on your cieling (you do have those right?) ... could use any glow in the dark stuff really. It really works great, especially if it glows just enough to illuminate the tape measure and give a good reading. I use this for astrophotography when i am not so concerned with night vision. A nice red glow in the dark pointer would be better... -- Randy Pufahl

Bill Arnett; last updated: 2005 Feb 21 ; suggestions or corrections appreciated