24" Nasmyth

[Orion]

Thanks Scott.
Yes a First Light ceremony...sounds good

[CoombellKid]

Superb!! job! I love the almost glass look your getting in the finish. You'll
be able to check your hair in it lol

I would love to see the first light of this scope, how far away is the mirror now?

regards,CS

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Orion

Rocker box completed.

Mate that coffee table is exquisite, and I see it comes with a 8 track stereo, awesome!!

You have done a great job with that ED, fantastic work!!! cant wait for it to go together

[Orion]

Originally Posted by CoombellKid

I would love to see the first light of this scope, how far away is the mirror now?

regards,CS

There might be a bit of a wait with the mirror but that's alright I don't want him to rush it.
The idea is to get the primary coated first, put it in the telescope and star test the convex secondary.
So the telescope has to be finished first.

[Orion]

Originally Posted by tornado33

EDIT: I forgot to ask, do you get such a beautiful finish by putting on multiple coats and fine sanding between coats?

Scott

That is exactly how I do it Scott

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Orion

Thanks Scott.
Yes a First Light ceremony...sounds good

Yep i can see you there ready to launch it with a bottle of champagne cracked over the bow......ok maybe not but those first photons will be breathtaking

[Orion]

We will have to think of a place to have first light. Maybe the for-shore at Nobbys?

[tornado33]

yes looking fowards to First light
Yep Nobbys would be good
Scott

[Orion]

It's been a long haul but it is starting to come together now.
The bearings are the last thing to make before I can put the telescope together.

1...First thing was to make a template of the bearing for routing purposes.

2...I needed a thickness of at least 35mm so I used two 15mm and 6mm ply
which were laminated and pressed together.

3...After the three pieces of ply were laminated. I routed the radius of the bearings and used the template to mark out the sections which were to be roughly cut out.

4...The template was then secured to the work piece and routing commenced.

5...The bearings after routing. I used a radius bit on the router to finish them off.

6...Sanded and the stain going on.

[GrahamL]

nice ed ..what hardware gets mounted with the extension on the
right side bearing ?

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

That'll be a stubby holder. Nice innovation - Stays at the same height so is easy to find in the dark

Should easily glue onto the back of the Alt encoder

[CoombellKid]

LoL, AstroJunk I was thinking of a similar thing.

They looks nice Ed, going for a sunburst look? reminds me of Les Paul
I used to own.

regards,CS

[Orion]

You got it right....the extension on one of the bearings is for the ALT encoder.

A Les Paul, that brings back memories.

[Orion]

Ground board, rocker box, mirror box and bearings assembled.
waiting on the truss poles.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Looks better and better everytime I look at it. great stuff

[CoombellKid]

Ed,

Wow! it is really looking fantastic. Looking forward to seeing it with the
truss poles in place. So how far away is the mirror now?

regards,CS

[Orion]

Thanks guys.
Rob by the beginning of next month we will be star testing the optics in the scope before coating them.

[GrahamL]

fantatic ed .. so do you use a double truss ??..mirror box to secondary then
secondary to tertiary ??.. I havn't been able to get my head around how
it all goes together.

[Orion]

Graham this will answer your question I think.

I assembled the telescope for the first time on Saturday night.
George came around and we put the optics in, to mainly see how the scope balanced out.
I was a little surprised because I thought it would be top heavy but it held it's own, Great! The scope moved effortlessly with the sealed bearings and it was a pleasure to use.

After collimating it for the first time (it took half an hour) we pointed it at the most obvious thing the moon and WOW!
Using a SWA24mm eyepiece the moon looked enormous by this time it was getting a bit late and we were a bit worn out.
I think the few beers we had in celebration contributed to that!

Anyway star testing is on the list for tonight if the weather is alright minus the beers.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

WOW that thing looks absolutely magnificent. Very nicely constructed.