scope finished

[Phizzy]

Hi all,
my telescope is finally finished (ideas from Alan ? DS4). I still need to come up with a light shield, and, of course, since being finished the cloud in Brisbane hasn't gone away....mirror is 14.5" f5.7

Phill

[mercedes_sl1970]

Phil

That looks terrific - very impressive and minimalist. I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

Andrew

[Benno85]

:thumbsup: Top work there, is it easy to move around?

[Jaybee]

Veerrrryyyy Nice Looking Scope Phill, Well Done.!

[Satchmo]

I suspect it will be very shaky at mid to low altitudes due to the very minimal side bearings that are unsupported . You may need to add a brace from the end of each side bearing to the nearest opposite corner of the mirror box, or at least a light-weighted ply plate between them.

[Phizzy]

Hi all
thanks for the kind words. Yep it's easy to move around (a bit hard to get through the back door though). It has no trouble reaching focus with my baader eyepieces but with my 2" GSO it needs to go further in by a couple of mm, my 2" skywatcher 28mm eyepiece doesn't seem to be anywhere close....all my 1.25mm eyepieces need to go in 20mm or so....So should I cut the poles down 20mm ?? Or just stick with the baader's?

First light (uncollimated??!) was great, jupiter was much brighter and had more detail. I couldn't make any other observations as I was observing though holes in the clouds and my neighbour had a spotlight pointing straight into my yard


Phill

[mental4astro]

Hi Phill,

Groovey, mate, :thumbsup:. I dig the string spider. Niiiiicccce.

You can stick with your Baader's, but it does limit your eyepiece useability. Should you want to try out another EP, you might not be able to.

Before you chop the poles, have you been able to achieve focus in another scope with both you Baaders & your Skywatcher EPs? Does your focuser have enough travel to cope with this range of travel?

When I worked out the location of the focuser for my rebuild, I did so knowing that I had EPs that positioned the draw tube at both ends of its travel, and fixed it with the tube positioned to accomodate the most in-travel and pulled out only 5mm. Even so, I have one EP that still needs to be pulled out of the focuser 2mm to achieve focus with the draw tube pulled out all the way! Pulling out the EP is much easier than cutting the tubes.

Hind site is a wonderful thing!

I agree with Mark about looking at supporting the altitude bearings across their free end. You will find with the scope pointing down low that they will flex in or out, so much that they could run off the Teflon pads. I too had to brace them in mine. Mine flexed in, so I just cut a length of dowel to hold them out to their correct position. No glue, no nuts, just compression from the bearings holds the dowel in place. The bearings in mine are also an enclosed semicircles and they still flexed. I hadn't planned or expected that.

Thinking of fitting light baffles for urban site use?

[Phizzy]

Hi all
I've used the scope a bit now and the things that need changing, so far, are

1. focuser needs to move down as the secondary mirror can't be centred in it for collimation (need longer focuser board!!).

2. alt bearings do need stiffening and the dowel:rofl:

3. rubber door stops for the mirror box to sit on as when it sits straight on the collimation bolts the collimation goes off:screwy:

4. centre spot for main mirror

5. someone who can collimate properly

Phill

[sasup]

very cool love the box, very low pro