The Gaunt pays a visit! Fabulous big refractor and big mount

mental4astro (Alexander) · #1 26-02-2015, 07:03 PM

Hi folks,

I had a wonderful visit from fellow IIS'er MattT today. He's up from Mexico, er..., Melbourne, for work for a couple of weeks here in Sydney. He lugged his beautiful Gaunt mounted Istar refractor all the way up here for an encoder fitting with Gary Kopff of Argo Navis fame. We had also hoped to get out to Katoomba Airfield last Sunday to give his scope a right royal thrashing. Cloud cover conspired against us.

However, Matt was kind enough to bring his wonderful scope for a visit to my place today,

What a lovely piece Matt has created for himself! I've only just found out that the Gaunt mount is actually Australian made!!! Blooming marvelous piece of engineering.

I've had the pleasure of adding to Matt's collection of bits and pieces for this scope. And today I discovered another. The gorgeous 40mm Unitron finder is one I had! It made its way down to Melbourne and onto Matt's scope! How things go.

Won't babble on too much. I'd rather let the some of the 85 pictures I took of the scope do the talking. I've added one of the Unitron finder when it was installed on my 17.5" dob before it was metamorphosed,

Thanks for the visit Matt! It was a pleasure to get to spend some time with you, and become familiar with your creation.

Alex.

mental4astro (Alexander) · #2 26-02-2015, 07:05 PM

A few more...

omegacrux (David) · #3 26-02-2015, 07:09 PM

I would love to own something like that
it is a beautiful scope and mount !

David

Kunama · #4 26-02-2015, 07:12 PM

Great pics Alex, thanks for posting.
It sure is an impressive bit of kit.

inline_online (Dan) · #5 26-02-2015, 07:47 PM

Stunning telescope.
I want one.

nebulosity. (Jo) · #6 26-02-2015, 07:59 PM

Oh man that is so beautiful! All that brass!!

Love it.

Jo

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #7 26-02-2015, 09:17 PM

Matt ... what a beauty....very impressive ....

Flash.....

Julian · #8 26-02-2015, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mental4astro

Hi folks,

I had a wonderful visit from fellow IIS'er MattT today. He's up from Mexico, er..., Melbourne, for work for a couple of weeks here in Sydney. He lugged his beautiful Gaunt mounted Istar refractor all the way up here for an encoder fitting with Gary Kopff of Argo Navis fame. We had also hoped to get out to Katoomba Airfield last Sunday to give his scope a right royal thrashing. Cloud cover conspired against us.

However, Matt was kind enough to bring his wonderful scope for a visit to my place today,

What a lovely piece Matt has created for himself! I've only just found out that the Gaunt mount is actually Australian made!!! Blooming marvelous piece of engineering.

I've had the pleasure of adding to Matt's collection of bits and pieces for this scope. And today I discovered another. The gorgeous 40mm Unitron finder is one I had! It made its way down to Melbourne and onto Matt's scope! How things go.

Won't babble on too much. I'd rather let the some of the 85 pictures I took of the scope do the talking. I've added one of the Unitron finder when it was installed on my 17.5" dob before it was metamorphosed,

Thanks for the visit Matt! It was a pleasure to get to spend some time with you, and become familiar with your creation.

Alex.

Tom Guant is my great great great Uncle or my Grandmothers great Uncle

Kunama · #9 26-02-2015, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebulosity.

Oh man that is so beautiful! All that brass!!

Love it.
Jo

A veritable brass mine ........ :eye pop:

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #10 26-02-2015, 11:15 PM

This would be good for ' side walk ' Astronomy ... they'd be lined up around the block.....

Flash....

strongmanmike (Michael) · #11 27-02-2015, 01:57 PM

Planet killer..?

Impressive and classic looking scope and I would bet if it were lined up next to a 20" dob in front of a large group of the general public, who could only chose one scope to look through, this would have the longest line of people waiting for a view

Mike

MattT · #12 02-03-2015, 12:59 PM

I had no idea Alex was going to do a thread on my scope and mount....nice pics Alex, far better than I can do. Had a nice few hours setting it up and looking over a few of Alex's creations too...if I ever want a Dob I know where to get one....great scopes Alex.

A couple of statistics, if I may. The scopes wiegh in at 20kgs or there abouts, there are 6 sliding weights on the OTA for perfect balance, the EQ head alone minus counterweight shaft weighs 43kg's the pier is close to 70kgs and takes around 30mins to set up....not a grab and go but transportable...sort of

A Planet Killer??? Hmmm... it is an Achro afterall, it does have CA as expected. Istar do a great job of hand polishing their lenses and it shows as I have had great views of Mars, Saturn, Globs and star clusters with it so far. Jupiter is still a dead loss hiden in trees. Yes people would line up, I guess. James Ling in Singapore and his 8" Istar has 'em lined up every time he takes it out.
A bit more Brass to add to this beauty yet, when I get round to buying it...need a lathe first.
It has been 1 1/2 years of building to get to this stage. This morning I ordered Argo Navis from Gary for the Gaunt.
On the drive back to Melbourne I had the thought that the only other scope that would go so well with the mount is a classic 12" f15 Cassegrain

http://www.astronomy-electronics-cen...u/parallax.htm

The real beauty of this set up is crusing the night sky with the long frac and the silky smooth mount silently doing its thing

For years I have wanted a set up like this (Unitron photo's in Astro Optical Supplies catalouge from the mid 70's....drooool) and finally got there. A special thanks to Matti for selling the Gaunt in the first place

A permanent set up in a dome out in NE Victoria is my wish for the not so distant future...slowly getting there!

Edit: Now back in my shed...not looking quite so good!