A Couple of Mods to the 22 Incher

[tnott]

For those that are interested, here are a couple of photos of a primary baffle and altitude bearing reinforcements that I recently added to my scope.

You can see the steel struts reinforcing the altitude bearings across the tips - put in place with knobs. Not sure how much flexure this prevents at low altitudes as the scope was pretty stiff before - I'll have to do some on/off comparison.

The baffle around the primary blocks stray light at the bottom end and protects the mirror a bit from kicked up dirt etc. It's made out of a piece of black signboard, curved into a tube and held in place with velcro. Works well and I don't worry about the exposed primary as much.

[Phoenix]

Nice work Tim

Did you need to shape or make cut-outs to the lower end of the baffle to attach it to the scope? Might need to do this also.

Cheers

[erick]

I feel happier for your mirror now Tim :jump2:

[tnott]

No, the baffle is just a piece of black plastic hollow core 3mm signboard velcroed into a cylinder. There is some overlap of course and 2 strips of velcro holds the ends together. For transport, it can be stored flat if I want.

The cylinder fits over the mirror retaining pins, velcro holding them on here as well. the bottom sits about 1/2 way up the thickness of the mirror so that it does not hit the Azimuth encoder when moving about.

The mirror cover fits over this cylinder, so that once I have set the scope up in the field I don't need to take the baffle off again to put it on again.

[Phoenix]

Thanks for the detail Tim. I've been considering the same upgrade as I get a little anxious about dust and dirt on the primary without the traditional mirror box. The scope cover comes right down below the primary but more protection would be nice. Will have a look to see if I can attach a baffle at similar connecting points. Thanks for the tips.

Cheers