Lightbridge Owners

[astronut (John)]

I have a question, a friend has just bought a Lightbridge 16".
Whilst showing him how to collimate the beast, I noticed that the altitude brake is on the opposite side of the eyepiece!!
Is this a Meade change? or Is it a construction fault?
Any enlightenment, happily accepted.

[trent_julie]

Hello there,
we have the 16 also, from what I understand is that the seam on both the primary mirror cylinder and secondary unit have to be in line, this seam then. Has to face the front of the base unit, (the seam in the metal cylinder is nearest to the piece of board that runs from side to side), beyond this there maybe a deeper issue with your altitude brake.

[astronut (John)]

Thanks for that info.
Being a Lightbridge owner myself, I'm aware of the alignment of the tubes.
It is a silly change, if it has been done on purpose.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

While most images online of the 16" show the altitude brake in the usual position, there are some which show no brake on that side. So I assume it is located on the other side. Odd choice.

http://www.shopatron.com/products/productdetail/16%22+LightBridge+(f/4.5)+Truss-Tube+Dobsonian/part_number=1645-05-02/1323.0.1.1.28926.45970.0.0.0

[astronut (John)]

Thanks JB,
The image that is posted on the link provided is of a Pre production version of the 12".
If you have a close look, it has a triangular ground board, later abandoned for the production models circa- 2005.
The mystery continues.......................... ??

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

Yes, I should have looked more closely at the scale of the OTA..maybe the other images I saw were 12's as well..

[White Rabbit]

I dont use the brake on mine I have counter weights that do the job better, but isnt it a simple case of taking the secondary part of the tube and just assembling it on the other side of the tube so that the ep and the brake are on the same side???