HELP: calling RCOS 16 F8.4 owners

[bert (Brett)]

HI All,

I am chasing down some measurements on on RCOS 16 rebuild I am doing. I have almost all parts bar the secondary mirror surround/baffle, and I needs some dimensions for the baffle, so I can get it 3d printed.

Also If you have a Deep sky instruments 16 f8.4 with star instruments optics the dimensions will also work.

Thanks in advance.

Brett

[Paul Haese]

Can't help you Brett, but I am so looking forward to the completed product.

[gregbradley]

One tip that may help. The CDK17 when I first got it had some offaxis bright star light streaks. As time went on Planewave issued various baffles.

The secondary shroud originally was a tube. Then it became slightly cone shaped so when it screwed back onto the mirror it baffled about 5mm of the mirror further suppressing reflections. So it goes from 5mm or so thick at the mirror down to 1mm at the edge.

Greg.

[jase (Jason)]

Didn't you get a lead from the RCOS Yahoo support group Brett? I recall reading it. You could also try Frank Barnes (skyimager.com). He's part of the AIC committee and a very approachable guy. I believe he's still running a 16" RCOS, or you could try one of the PROMPT team.

[bert (Brett)]

Hi all,

I got reply from Dan Gray of sidereal technologies, who was visiting Mike and Ann Rice from nmskies.com (New mexico skies) and they kindly supplied the info I needed.

Poita has 3d printed me a smaller scale model of the secondary, and I think the concept of 3d printing will work very well.

I am designing another version that has a plenum chamber in the baffle that has nozzles which will blow air over the secondary mirror, to prevent dew forming and thermal surface eddies which will minimise telescope induced seeing issues. We'll see how that goes.

Brett

[gregbradley]

That looks good Brett. 3D printing is no doubt changing the face of telescope making for the better.

Planewave were one of the first to use 3D printing for baffles.

Greg.