Pony Club 14th April 2018 - Welcome to Rod's New SDM Telescope!
Hi everyone,
I am thrilled finally to be welcoming the arrival of my new SDM telescope, The Glenfallus, on Saturday 14th April 2018.
This 20 inch f/3.8 beauty has all bells and whistles, including ServoCat. With its shorter focal length (compared with the Mary Rose), most observing can be done without a ladder, which will come as a great relief to my creaking knees.
Peter Read is delivering The Glenfallus on a New Moon weekend, and so we thought we would make the most of the opportunity and bring it up to the Pony Club (assuming the weather gods are on our side) to put it through its paces.
Peter will be coming to the Pony Club with me, providing a great opportunity for anyone who wants to talk to the master scope builder in person.
Post on this thread if you would like to come along and share in the excitement!
*With my previous scope, the Mary Rose, I resisted getting ServoCat, but this time I have decided to take the plunge and go all out with ServoCat and all other bells and whistles.
*at zenith, it is about 5 foot 10inches to the eyepiece. For me, that means a small step ladder for zenith, but otherwise firmly standing on terra firma.
*The mirror comes from the same company which supplied me for the Mary Rose, OMI. It is only 1.6 inches thick (compared to 2 inches for the Mary Rose), allowing for much more rapid cooling.
*The name for my scope derives from two sources. My wife always amused herself by calling my previous scope The Phalluscope, a reference to its similarity to saluting male genitalia. As many know, I am a whisky fanatic, and so the "glen" part is an homage to such great whisky producers as Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glen Moray etc, but especially my favourite speyside distillery, Glenfarclas. Hence, "Glenfallus".
Colin - the decals and other artwork was designed by Paul Wallace of PeowPeow, I'll post some of the design work so you can get the full idea of what he has planned.
Joe - this is definitely a male scope. However, a female visits to observe from time to time, as you shall see from the shroud design. Hope it all comes together for us to catch up on the 14th of April.
So firstly, here is some shots of the scope pre-dressing.
1. Perfectly square!
2. Peter Read putting the mirror box together
3. Peter Read testing. Peter is a few inches shorter than me, so this scope will be at a very comfortable height.
So here is the artwork design of the overall scope.
That's me (the Rodmonaut) floating in space. The air-line is actually filled with whisky. The bottle of whisky has the label name "Amber Lane" because that is the name of a whisky distillery I am currently establishing with Phil Townsend (a fellow IIS-er).
The designer Paul Wallace has come up with a badge design to go with the scope, which we are having rendered in bronze. It is based on a Soviet era genre of badges. I am having a bunch of badges made, some of which will be adhered to the scope, but some which will be available for sharing
Will just miss this night as I am in Qld. until the 15th. Hope your first light with that new beast goes well Rod. I am sure it will be a cracker of a scope. Will be nice to catch up some time soon with you and everyone at the PC.
Allan - that sounds great if you can bring your US astro mate along - hope it works out.
Rick - sorry I will miss you mate. With the new scope I am hoping to get back into more regular observing again, and so hopefully we will get to catch up soon.
Oh this is so exciting mate.
I can't wait to catch up and see the new scope.
There'll be much celebrating so looking forward to it.
I'll bring the cigars.