Time has been hard to come by the past couple months, I finally got a couple days off to wrap this up, hopefully will have it complete by Saturday.
A 6" f/5 like this one is a tiny little thing. I don't have a total weight yet, but I hope it comes in at less than 12 lbs when I'm finished. The tripod will be carried over from a previous project--so I just have the azimuth "ring" and altitude bearings left.
The entire thing should easily fit in overhead storage in an airplane with room for 2 day's worth of clothing in the same suitcase.
I had the exquisite mirror that will be going into this telescope in a previous telescope and decided there is something wrong with the prevailing attitude that a small to medium aperture reflector of short f/ratio can't be worth looking through--I've looked through a LOT of premium scopes and views through these 6" f/5 optics on planets is up with the best. Plus it is also a wonderful widefield instrument with enough aperture to go DSO hunting from a dark site--happily pursued since everything, observing stool included, will fit in a small bag.
I don't think I could make telescopes without a router, a small metal lathe and a Dremel tool. Practically every small part was either made on or found it's way onto my 7x10 lathe for modification.
The spider vanes are steel banding strap. The center hub is nylon turned on the lathe. Upper ring cut with a router. Truss poles are 5/16" aluminum arrow shafts. Bottom connectors are tent snaps/buttons screwed onto more nylon I turned on the lathe glued onto the shafts. They don't come unsnapped--I've shaken the entire assembly violently and it doesn't unsnap, or loosen--it's tight.
Upper trusses slide into nylon I shaped on a bandsaw and are wedged apart by carefully cut and bent steel banding strap. Works great and cost nothing.
Primary centering and side support is accomplished with rubber stoppers I cut in half--squeezing down on them with hex grommets fattens them until they perfectly center the mirror. Velcro tabs mate with sticky-backed Velcro on the mirror's side for safety. Both mirrors are easily and quickly removed for safer transport.
Fan power for ultra-fast cooling (already fast with the open structure). Dual 9v pack switches the 2 batteries from series to parallel to run the fan at high power for fast cooling and then 1/2 speed for thermal maintenance.
Focuser is a heavily modified Celestron unit I almost threw away, but it was lightweight and not sloppy, so I reconsidered its potential for this project. Cut off the curved base and lowered the profile to less than 2" tall. It is mounted immediately off the light cone, so while it is still nearly 2" tall, it is equivalent to being inside the tube on a typical newt and still has about 1" of travel.
More to come tomorrow or Saturday...
A 6" f/5 like this one is a tiny little thing. I don't have a total weight yet, but I hope it comes in at less than 12 lbs when I'm finished. The tripod will be carried over from a previous project--so I just have the azimuth "ring" and altitude bearings left.
The entire thing should easily fit in overhead storage in an airplane with room for 2 day's worth of clothing in the same suitcase.
I had the exquisite mirror that will be going into this telescope in a previous telescope and decided there is something wrong with the prevailing attitude that a small to medium aperture reflector of short f/ratio can't be worth looking through--I've looked through a LOT of premium scopes and views through these 6" f/5 optics on planets is up with the best. Plus it is also a wonderful widefield instrument with enough aperture to go DSO hunting from a dark site--happily pursued since everything, observing stool included, will fit in a small bag.
I don't think I could make telescopes without a router, a small metal lathe and a Dremel tool. Practically every small part was either made on or found it's way onto my 7x10 lathe for modification.
The spider vanes are steel banding strap. The center hub is nylon turned on the lathe. Upper ring cut with a router. Truss poles are 5/16" aluminum arrow shafts. Bottom connectors are tent snaps/buttons screwed onto more nylon I turned on the lathe glued onto the shafts. They don't come unsnapped--I've shaken the entire assembly violently and it doesn't unsnap, or loosen--it's tight.
Upper trusses slide into nylon I shaped on a bandsaw and are wedged apart by carefully cut and bent steel banding strap. Works great and cost nothing.
Primary centering and side support is accomplished with rubber stoppers I cut in half--squeezing down on them with hex grommets fattens them until they perfectly center the mirror. Velcro tabs mate with sticky-backed Velcro on the mirror's side for safety. Both mirrors are easily and quickly removed for safer transport.
Fan power for ultra-fast cooling (already fast with the open structure). Dual 9v pack switches the 2 batteries from series to parallel to run the fan at high power for fast cooling and then 1/2 speed for thermal maintenance.
Focuser is a heavily modified Celestron unit I almost threw away, but it was lightweight and not sloppy, so I reconsidered its potential for this project. Cut off the curved base and lowered the profile to less than 2" tall. It is mounted immediately off the light cone, so while it is still nearly 2" tall, it is equivalent to being inside the tube on a typical newt and still has about 1" of travel.
More to come tomorrow or Saturday...
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