Well I have finally finished my little 8" and I am pleased with the result.
I am attaching a few pics showing the scope in its packed up state and being assembled
1 Scope packed up along with the side struts and the tools required to assemble (1 Allen key and a spanner) and the red dot finder that won't fit in the box.
2 The 3 legs removed
3 Close up of the threaded rods that hold it all together and the spcers used to keep the upper ring well away from the primary
4 Full view of box with upper ring taken out. The 2 side rings sit on the bottom plate of the primary cell.
5 Show with the side rings taken out
6 All parts removed
7 and 8 show the underside of the ground board and attachments for the legs
Next lot of photos.
9 Shows the rocker box and ground board and legs assembled
10 Shows the primary cell with side struts attached
11 Shows upper ring attached to side struts
12 Shows side rings attached to struts
13 Assembled scope
14 Base of rocker showing weight saving cutouts
15 Light shield on upper ring
16 Light shield installed around primary
Total weight has come in at 10kg, which is a bit more that Gary's version largely because I used 18mm ply for the main parts of the box, as it is not for airline use this was OK.
I may have a crack at a box with 12mm like Gary's, but still to decide. Also the spider and focuser are heavier than the ones he did.
Had a use with a 25mm plossl I had lying around last night. Very nice views and an ep like that gives a wide field with relatively little discernible coma.
Fantastic travel scope! I'm itching to try this myself, despite my limited craftsmanship. Where did you get the plywood, BTW? I might start by rebuilding my 8" GSO Dob mount in this material...
Looking through your photos (also, having re-flocked my Mak just last week) it occurred to me that the ProtoStar Flock Board material would make an ideal (full or partial) tube for a highly portable scope like yours. It stores flat, weighs practically nothing and will form a rigid tube around anything you care to wrap it around. Also, it's pitch black on the inside, of course.
Thanks Andrew and Steffen
I have used some old Kydex that was left over from the rebuild of the UTA on my 20" to make the light baffles. It is a little stiff but works OK and being leftovers is cheap!
Very nice work. Looks great.
where did you get the teflon pads from, and did that mirror cover come with the mirror?
Did you use dowels at all for any of the joints?
Thanks Alastair
The teflon pads for the ALT came from a kit I purchased from Astrosystems in the states when I upgraded my ground board on the 20". In the end I only used new pads on the AZ so I had these left over. The AZ pads on this scope were the old ones from the 20". The reason why I replaced them on the 20" was that the originals were quite thick and would have made installing a powered ground board system difficult.
The cover came with the mirror from Bintel.
All permanent joins are glued and screwed. I considered dowells, but having never used that before I went this way. It is really solid.
Clear night last night (well clearish anyways!). I have been pleased overall with the views from this scope, but it is obvious that at f4 collimation becomes a little more critical even for visual use.
So I decided to do a collimation setup from scratch. Centre spotted the secondary (didn't bother with offset as my calculations showed that the amount would be less than the size of the spot anyways!) and then worked through a sight tube, cheshire andfinally the auto collimator. All these tools are old Techron ones. I hadn't used the auto collimator before but it made a difference when doing the final tweak.
Images were noticeably sharper in the inner part of the FOV when I tested it outside which was really pleasing. Looks like it may be a really nice night here tonight so I will have another go then.
Time for an update on the little 8". I have successfully installed the encoders to work with the old Lumicon Sky Vector DSC that I inherited with my 20".
After a bit of fiddling I have managed to get the system working a treat.
Puts any object within the FOV of the 15mm 68deg ep, and most times it is inside the centre 3rd of the FOV.
Also collimation is now very nice and star images are really sharp. Using a proper laser (Howie Glatter one!) makes all the difference
Alround I am now very happy with this little scope!
Attached photo shows the DSC unit mounted. Had it out again last night. Despite moon I was able to nab quite a few targets using the Lumicon Sky Vector. Not as easy as the Argo but still works a treat.
M42/43 looked stunning and this is a really nice scope to check out Open Clusters around Orion, Canis Major and Puppis.
