12 inch wooden scope

[Rod]

I recently finished refurbishing my 12 inch F5 scope and thought I would share a few photos of the finished product. These were taken at the ASV's recent Messier star party. The scope used to be in a truss configuration but I became tired of the assembly disassembly process. The tube is made of 3 layers of 1.5 mm hoop pine ply using the technique Dave Gault first described here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20101202125202/http://users.tpg.com.au/users/daveg/Tube.html

The scope has a full thickness mirror I made myself many years ago.

The other scope in the pictures is my son's 8 inch F6. We built this together and it's been probably my most used instrument.

Rod

[Rod]

A few more pics

[Rod]

I like to use an azimuth setting circle and an inclinometer to locate objects.

[Rod]

The inclinometer measurement can be fine adjusted with this bolt.

[Rod]

One more photo. That's my son with the scopes.

[mental4astro]

Fabulous stuff Rod!

Looks like some lovely timber work :)

Alex.

[Shark6]

Beautiful scopes, love the look !!!

[Wavytone]

Nice job !

BTW the cylindrical tube could have been made even lighter by using strips to separate the inner and outer layers - ie the tube wall could be mostly hollow, which would reduce its weight by a third.

An alternative is to use balsa for the middle layer.

[MarkJ]

Hi Rod,


Your wooden scopes look fantastic and I know they work as well as they look. I've seen you locate objects quickly and accurately with your azimuth circle and inclinometer. Everyone with a simple Dob (me included) should give this technique a go.



Mark

[Rod]

Thanks for the interest everyone. I enjoyed making these scopes. The dob setting circle and Inclinometer is a great addition Mark. It works best of course with a wide field eyepiece.

After the star b que experience, I've decided to make a narrower circular bottom ring for the 12. This will make it easier to rotate the tube at all elevations. There were some shorter visitors who had trouble reaching the eyepiece. As it is, the octagonal ring hits the rocker when it's rotated.

Interesting idea re the balsa I might try that of If I make another circular ply tube. More for cost savings than lightness. For small scopes I think the octagonal tube is hard to beat and is relatively easy to build.

Rod