A New Lease of Life (Old 6" Newtonian)

[MattT]

HI Gav.
Many years ago I borrowed a book from my local library that had lots of ATM ideas like home made mounts out of Aluminium poured at home into sand moulds!!!.... but there was an EQ mount made from the rear axel of a mini minor mounted very much the same as the 74" reflector at Mt Stromolo was (may she rest in peace) and your mount seems very much along the same lines. Absolutely Fabulous, Happy ATMing
Cheers, Matt

[GC - South Aus]

G'day everyone,

Hope you are all well.

Firstly my apologies for the late update and reply to some of the comments, like most people I have been really busy with work, study and family. Unfortunately work and study have been keeping me from not only this project but observing too (however weather has been generally poor on average).

Brian, glad to hear that you are enjoying the project (hopefully there has been some better things on tv lately). By the way humble pie tastes horrible, but I am glad to see Port getting some good wins up lately. I was even at the Port and Roo's game recently, I must say it was one of the best games I have been to.

Brent, regarding the re-coating of the mirror. Yes this probably could be done but I am not aware of many places around where I live in South of Adelaide or what the cost maybe. Additionally, when comparing to some of the prices out there for not only 6" mirrors but whole OTA's, is it really worth it?

Matt, thanks for the comments mate. I too remember the old 74" telescope at Mt Stromlo. I was lucky enough to live in the ACT for a while and had the opportunity to get up there a couple of times.

Bosi, thanks for your ideas and offer of help. Shame you don't live in Adelaide as it would be good to have advice and other ideas, but this is why I chose to use this forum. I knew I could rely on the internet to keep us (i.e. astronomers) all together no matter how far we all are from each other.

Anyway. this is just a quick update to let you all know how things are progressing/fairing, which is not too great at the moment. The bad news is the mirror is no good at the moment and will require a recoat. This will mean that this (OTA) will have to go on the back burner for now. I would like to restore the mirror but don't have the cash at the moment and as stated previously it is not really worth it at the moment considering the current prices of 6" mirrors and OTA's.

The mount is now my priority and I have managed to source a Losmandy DDS system with G11 motors and I am hoping this will provide enough power to move this thing. Like I said in earlier posts even though it looks quite hefty it does move very effortlessly when pushed. The gears/worms are going to be the biggest issue I feel, this is in cost and placement. I would like to get some Ed Byers worm gears but they are pretty pricey (understandbly) due to their quality.

Anybody got any ideas for some cheaper but reasonable quality solutions?

I have got some ideas for placements and will post some images soon for comments.

Once again my apologies for the late entry and I will try to do better over the coming months (however I do have exams at Uni this month!).

Kind Regards & Clear Skies

Gavin

[Rod]

I found Lenord Stage good to deal with. His gears are here:

http://www.gototelescopes.com/gears.htm

I think if you do a search you will find he has an excellent reputation.

Rod

[GC - South Aus]

Hello Everyone

Thanks for the advice and encouragement so far.

I am still working on this and researching gear options and placements, plus some recent purchases (albiet funded by recent IIS sales) have set me back financially.

As some of you might have seen I have recently taken on another project of upgrading my newly acquired SW 150mm (150/1200) refractor (see link below).

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=97504

Another project to keep me going, as well as my obs that I am building at the moment (very slowly!!!!!!!!!!!). I am working on the Achro to upgrade and modify to come as close as I can to an ED telescope (i.e. focuser, v block (CA) filters, dew shield/lens heater etc etc). I know that I would have to replace the lens to truely achieve this desire for an ED/APO of this size, but hey I do what I can on a budget!

I will keep you all posted and eventually start a thread for both the SW 150 Refractor and the Obs.

Cheers and Clear Skies

Gav

[MattT]

Hi Gav,
Have just found this thread again. 6" achro's are the best! I've had mine for a while and LOURVE IT Thanks to David U for doing a great job on getting the most out of this big baby.
Istar are coming out with the Raycorr really soon.....this year round December is the latest and it will turn achro's into apo's...well worth waiting for. Supposed to cost around $300-400 US. Check out Istar on my Signature.

In the mean time I upgraded the 6" with a GSO 10-1 linear bearing focuser from Agena Astro in the US for $250 delivered and a Badder semi-apo filter which does amazing things to the moon, as does a William's Optics Bino viewer(thanks Meru!) Binoing a refractor is just sensational, the moon....wow. I wish there were some planets up at a decent time to bino view...
As a refractorholic I would love to hear what happens next
All the best
Matt