This was a beat-up scope I bought a few years ago that I rebuilt and then sold in 04. When it came up on Astromart I jumped at the chance to get it back. It's one of those Celestron "nulled" scopes that are rare finds in commercial SCT's. At high power on a night of good seeing the double-double shows 4 white airy disks (very tiny) surrounded by a single diffraction ring each. I have resolved stars to the diffraction limit with this scope. This is not your "average" SCT.
As is usual of me I can't leave well enough alone and machined openings in the OTA to aid the cooling off of the optics. With this scope I didn't want to go through the process of machining another closed loop cooling system but I find that it works well enough to have been worth the trouble of machining the cutouts and covers. Cooling is not as fast/good as closed loop cooling but you can sure see the difference when the covers are removed during observing. I'm a lunar/planetary/multiple star observer BTW.
I love to tinker with telescopes and optics. For me that's half the fun
Keith
As is usual of me I can't leave well enough alone and machined openings in the OTA to aid the cooling off of the optics. With this scope I didn't want to go through the process of machining another closed loop cooling system but I find that it works well enough to have been worth the trouble of machining the cutouts and covers. Cooling is not as fast/good as closed loop cooling but you can sure see the difference when the covers are removed during observing. I'm a lunar/planetary/multiple star observer BTW.
I love to tinker with telescopes and optics. For me that's half the fun
Keith
Attached Image:
Scopejunkie
40 year old restored C14 with recirculating cooling w/Skywatcher DOB GOTO Conversion (CPC14)
Synscan DOB mounted Sky-Watcher Evostar 150mm/1200mm ED Refractor
"Rescued" Craig's List Orion 120mm/1000mm Refractor
USAF Vet
