That's not a scope....this is a scope.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=27301024&nid...&s_cid=queue-3

[Baddad (Marty)]

Must be able to see aliens with that one

[glend (Glen)]

Great story, wonder if he used Kriege's book as reference. Don't understand the need for the flag on it, aircraft clearance lights yes. Maybe there is a spare Hubble blank lying in storage somewhere.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Awesome.
His next project should be an observatory to house that monster.

Cheers

[clive milne]

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...fpart/all/vc/1

An interesting and ambitious project to be sure.
a few points to consider though.....
I'm not sure how how credible the claim of 'text book' diffraction patterns is. I suspect it is wishful thinking for a ground based 1.8m telescope irrespective of its pedigree.
The 9 point mirror cell geometry seems far from ideal.
The degree of baffling at the focal plane is difficult to ascertain but I think needs work. A mersenne might have been a better choice.
As noted by Chuck, the choice of eyepiece focal length during the observing session resulted in a fair percentage of the light collected by the primary being wasted.
Still, aside from all that he seemed to be impressed.

[Barrykgerdes]

Has the cost of the "Cherry picker" to reach the eyepiece been factored in? I found my 10" LX200 much more useful than my 16" lightbridge. It can be transported an set up in a fraction of the time. So aperture is not always the best way to go.

Barry

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

I would like to see 47 Tuc or Omega C through that.

[Lee]

You'd hope it was balanced well, you wouldn't want it to topple onto you...

[glend (Glen)]

Well if he did have the eyepiece at the top he could use a CCD camera eyepiece with a JMI focus motor and wire it all down to a ground based monitor - save all that ladder climbing business. Why don't big dob people do that - guess it's bordering on astrophotography.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Certainly looks impressive.

[doppler (Rick)]

"Clements finished the telescope and in late September, he said he put a reflective coating on the mirror with a weed sprayer."

He put the reflective coating on with a weed sprayer?, I wonder what "paint" he used. I have been experimenting with chemicaly depositing silver nitrate on a 10" mirror and that has been a task and a half.

[bojan]

Well..
IMHO this is a waste of time and effort.
How many times in a year such a monster can be set up and used, considering the setup time ? ..
I haven't used my 10" in the last 6 months, simply because I don't feel like the whole trouble of setting up is worth here in Melbourne' suburbs..

He should have build the dome for it as well - then I would saw WOW.

Now.. I am not impressed

[simmo]

Well done to the guy, looks as though he's a giver. Even though it's not perfect or totally traditional I think good on him for furthering amateur astronomy. Lot of kids and adults minds are going to be inspired by looking through that telescope.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Regardless whether people think building a scope of this magnitude is not practical or a waste of time and effort I have to applaud anyone that can build such a complex structure from a visual plan in their head. People like this make very good engineers IMHO.

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by bojan

Well..
IMHO this is a waste of time and effort.
How many times in a year such a monster can be set up and used, considering the setup time ? ..
I haven't used my 10" in the last 6 months, simply because I don't feel like the whole trouble of setting up is worth here in Melbourne' suburbs..

He should have build the dome for it as well - then I would saw WOW.

Now.. I am not impressed

He actually is going to take it around the country and introduce people to the night sky with it. So he will probably use it more than I used my 9.25"