i ask this question because of a recent visit to a member of the Newcastle Astronomical Society.
George Livanos is building a 48 inch scope made from an aluminuim mirror which he is currently grinding, cage and scope design which he has built and fabricated, and using every day type materials.
It is a labour of love and I am sure that Orion can fill in some of the details for me, he is getting close to achieving the projects finality (within the next 12mths i am lead to believe).
Now george took a virtually unfinished 32" scope to the SPSP 2005, aparently that has been refined a bit more, and he is currently working on a 24" with Orion. I am absolutely amazed as to georges abilities and resourcefulness.
I will get some images later and get an article done, but what an amazing amount of thought that has gone into this project And some people may remember him from Lostock this year in the river grinding a lens..............
oh i digressed, the largest scope I have looked through was a 30" at Duckadang, so I await the completion of George's project with glee
The largest I have looked through is both of ASWA's 17.5" dob's. Not often though, I'm usually too tied up in my own activities to bother, to be honest .
The largest scope I have used would be my 12".
The astronomical society I'm with has a 14" so I must get to a viewing night and have a look through it.
Are you sure your photo analysis team got it right?
Below is attached another image of exactly the same site, but this
time imaged from an angle to reveal additional details not evident in
the overhead shot.
i ask this question because of a recent visit to a member of the Newcastle Astronomical Society.
George Livanos is building a 48 inch scope made from an aluminuim mirror which he is currently grinding, cage and scope design which he has built and fabricated, and using every day type materials.
It is a labour of love and I am sure that Orion can fill in some of the details for me, he is getting close to achieving the projects finality (within the next 12mths i am lead to believe).
Now george took a virtually unfinished 32" scope to the SPSP 2005, aparently that has been refined a bit more, and he is currently working on a 24" with Orion. I am absolutely amazed as to georges abilities and resourcefulness.
I will get some images later and get an article done, but what an amazing amount of thought that has gone into this project And some people may remember him from Lostock this year in the river grinding a lens..............
oh i digressed, the largest scope I have looked through was a 30" at Duckadang, so I await the completion of George's project with glee
I was surprised Houghy to find out that that was your first time over Georges place.
Yes, big George certainly amazes me.
I've known George for a few years now and I have never met anyone like him.
I remember when he started with the aluminium mirror, he made a plane out of a piece of hard wood and the blade of a circular saw and he started taking shavings off, carving the shape into the mirror.
He has come a long way since then.
The telescope.
48"f8 folded Herschelian telescope.
1.2m octagon aluminium primary mirror, 600mm aluminium secondary
and a 7" (178mm) tertiary.
Here is a pic of George holding my 24" with the 48" monster (not completed) in the back ground.
Are you sure your photo analysis team got it right?
Below is attached another image of exactly the same site, but this
time imaged from an angle to reveal additional details not evident in
the overhead shot.
Combined with a good laser collimator, it might provide similar capability to what
the Chinese were alleged to have tested on the U.S. reconnaissance Keyhole satellites.
The largest scope i used....would have to be the 24" Ritchey-Chretian at the Nepean Astronomy Centre not long after it was first built....Mark Suchting did the optics for it, very nice design and the views were awesome....pity about the light pollution they now get there....fun times....There was also a 17.5" scope they had there before the 24" went in.....
Other than that i use the 14" SCT at Armidale Observatory every now and then.....
Cheers!
As far as refractors go, in another life I worked as a professional astronomer in South Africa. The observatory had a 26.5" refractor. (They always emphasised that half inch.) One night the seeing was exceptional and we had 1000 power on Mars. This is going back a long way (1970) and canals on Mars was still an issue. I thought that if ever I was going to see canals on Mars it was that night. No canals, but I'll never forget the beautiful image of Mars.
Geoff
The largest scope i used....would have to be the 24" Ritchey-Chretian at the Nepean Astronomy Centre
I have used that one also, as well as mucking around with the one up at Linden, which was very old and needed a lot of work, if I can recall it correctly. Btw, I have a sister in law who used to live at Walcha but now lives at Kentucky, small planet huh?
I once looked through the 30 inch at Linden but it is not the best..think Bob Evans has some plans to fix what ever is wrong with it..I once looked at -not through-the Anglo Australian at Siding Springs-does that count?
I have memories from Astrofest as well Dave.
Wandering in a daze from a 10" to a 12.5" to a 17.5" to a 20" to a 24" to a
30". As everyone was looking at the same thing, The Veil, it was a wonderful to make the comparisons. Then everyone moved their scopes to looking at the Ring Neb I think it was. Again, everyone was wandering from scope to scope to make the comparison. Unforgetable experience.
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