Made a bit of progress this weekend
.
Refurbished focuser and trialed the JMI Motofocus unit (removed for the moment).
Fitted stering handle to tube.
Washed primary mirror and adjusted mirror cell.
Fitted Ebony Star on Teflon bearings.
Completed most of timber work. Couple of holes to fill, final sanding then finishing.
The complete scope weighs 17kg thanks to the very heavy tube (11kg).
1 hr observing session last night. Seeing was just average but Jupiter was quite sharp (very sharp indeed in moments of good seeing @222X) and the scope had a very nice "snap" to focus so I think the mirror should be quite good
. The scope is outside cooling down for a second session tonight.
I have attached a couple of photos of progress:
Note the mirror cell, the mirror just rests on a sheet of rubber like material which rests in turn on a ring which is the inner part of the mirror cell.
Cheers,