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Old 27-03-2017, 01:01 PM
StephenRH (Stephen)
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StephenRH is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Kaitaia, New Zealand
Posts: 21
Kororia 28" f/3.3 (SDM #062)

Here's my big beast. It's way bigger than I thought it would be. I call it 'Kororia'. The name is Maori for 'glory' and it comes from Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God." It's a fully laden 28" f/3.3. It was made by Peter Read, SDM Telescopes, in Bunbartha, VIC, Australia. It's a real work on art - aesthetically pleasing to the eye and tests revealed excellent performance.
The mirror is by Mike Lockwood of LCO in USA.
It has ArgoNavis and Servocat (with two handboxes - one on the stalk and one at the eyepiece.
Kororia has an 80mm f/6 Explore Scientific Triplet APO Finder with a 20mm Nagler. That has a 3.4° FOV at 24x magnification. A Telrad is fitted. There is also an 11x60 RA Finder to help balance the scope (which is as near to perfect as you can get).
I use Nagler eyepieces and have ordered a Stellarview 20mm 100° eyepiece as well.
It has fans fitted to cool the mirror and heater straps around the smaller instruments and eyepieces.
The rocker box is larger than usual as Peter wanted to raise the height to see closer to the horizon over my 1.200m fold down walls on the observatory.
It's permanently set up in Pukemaru Observatory, on my property near Kaitaia and about 100m up f the house.
I will be using it for visual variable star observing (CVs, RCBs, NLs, and a few Mira/LPVs). Plus of course, public viewing.
I have asked people not to ring me if it's a fine night between Last and First Quarter. I will be busy (unless it's raining).

Oh and by the way, it's been stormy for the past 2 days so no viewing and rain/storms/thunder predicted for the rest of the week so I haven't had a chance to observe yet. That is so often the case with a new telescope.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (Kororia 1 Me standing with arms folded.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Kororia 2 Me standing by UTA.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Kororia 3 UTA.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Kororia 4 Argo+Servocat.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Kororia 5 Name+fans.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (Kororia 6 name plaque.jpg)
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