Almost There! (16" Diaries)

[Darkplague]

Well the finish is now dry and everything is polished up ready for assembly.
If all goes well I should be viewing in the next day or 2. Will post pictures of the completed scope shortly!!!

Hopefully I can just catch Jupiter before it disappears for the year :(

[Astroman]

Looks very nice Mark, the stain came up really well. I had a look through a 16" f4.9 lastnight it was awesome. You will have billions of hours of fun.

[davidpretorius]

top class!

[Darkplague]

Was that at Paris Creek??

[GrahamL]

Looks great mark.. If i ever get another scope I'd really like to have a go
at the DIY option .. Is there some plans or guides online that help ?

[Astroman]

No Mark, that was at Stockport. Through Tim's (Tnott) 16" Tri Dob.

[iceman]

Looks nice! I think a 15" or 16" is somewhere in my future, but I need something reliable and accurate to track it on if I want to do imaging.

Servocat might be overkill on a smaller (than 18") scope :shrug:

[[1ponders]]

Lookin' damn fine Mark. I'll bet the excitementometer is starting to get a bit of a buzz happening :cool:


Easy fixed Mike, go for a 25" :shrug:

[davidpretorius]

mike, I am seriously thinking that a 16" meade lightbridge with a larger attached alt bearing, an insulated primary mirror containment area with a peltier cooling system and a dob driver II or equivalent will be very accurate re tracking.

I have been thinking for many hours this weekend that the entire base volume where the primary mirror sits in a lightbridge could be fully enclosed for cooling purposes.

I am thinking that you get a fair estimate of what the minimum temp will be for the evening, enclose the mirror in an insulator, set the cooling to come on at say 4pm or whatever.

I believe that being a bigger mirror shouldn't be an issue if you can basicallly put it in a insulated and enclosed fridge for a few hours.

I am really starting to warm to these truss designs. Paul has his ordered his, Wes Higgins has some beautiful planetary work on his 18".

Unless dso imaging is a must (even then drizzle is getting very handy), I reckon the next 12 months will be very very exciting!!!

Bring on the next Jupiter Season!!!!

[astroron]

Mike,why do you think a servo cat is overkill on a 16" scope? :shrug: if you want to keep objects in the field under high power it would be a god send. (see how quickly Uranus goes through the field aty 350x mag).
Cost wise it is probably in line with a good equatorial mount:)

[Darkplague]

All I used was the book " The dobsonian Telescope" by David Kriege.
That and general info. on forums and such.

[iceman]

You're probably right, Ron. It's not uncommon for people to spend $4-$6k on their EQ mounts, so $2-$3k on a servocat is probably a good option, where you want tracking on a large aperture dob that won't ride on an EQ mount.