Junk Yard Dog (Mutt)Posted By Keith Lawson |
Things can fall together in a way that let us know that we are not always in complete control. Chance sometimes has its place in the affairs of men. Case in point: my fairly recent acquisitions.
The C11 OTA. Looking at it from the outside and you wouldn't even consider it. Many scratches and chips in the paint. The primary mirror retaining ring was very loose which caused loss of collimation when switching from one side of the sky to the other. The secondary mirror housing was also loose and barely stayed centered in the corrector during collimation. The secondary mirror was heavily coated in dust and dirt from someone leaving the rear of the OTA open to the elements with the OTA stored face down. It even smelled strongly like a tom cat had payed it a visit or two. Initial testing revealed a well corrected optic set. Tore it apart and all issues were fixed and a cooling system was added. High resolution performance: Best SCT I have ever owned to date, and I have owned a lot of them. Intrafocal and extrafocal patterns, superb. The optics defines a clean round airy disk at high power. 250 line per inch grating at 3 bands outside of focus, straight. If I interpret this correctly, that's better than 1/8th wave at the eyepiece (strehl .95). Diagonal included. Go figure :S
Case 2: 30 year old Meade 1" shaft mount. Where do I start? Paint condition a joke. Sloppy bearing fits, sloppy clock drive, iffy tracking, etc. After a day of complete tear down and refitting she "ain't-too-bad". Damp time from a good rap: less than 2 seconds. Stable enough to get precise focus during use at 560x.
Add a Celestron tripod (with a machined adapter) and you have a complete, very stable, high performance telescope. Did I plan it this way? Nope. Life has a way of throwing little surprises. I'm glad that this one was a good one
As a telescope maker for over 30 years I have had my share of plans that turned out to be a bust. This scope combination makes me sit back and chuckle because I didn't plan its well working outcome 8) Anyone else with a similar experience?
Keith
The C11 OTA. Looking at it from the outside and you wouldn't even consider it. Many scratches and chips in the paint. The primary mirror retaining ring was very loose which caused loss of collimation when switching from one side of the sky to the other. The secondary mirror housing was also loose and barely stayed centered in the corrector during collimation. The secondary mirror was heavily coated in dust and dirt from someone leaving the rear of the OTA open to the elements with the OTA stored face down. It even smelled strongly like a tom cat had payed it a visit or two. Initial testing revealed a well corrected optic set. Tore it apart and all issues were fixed and a cooling system was added. High resolution performance: Best SCT I have ever owned to date, and I have owned a lot of them. Intrafocal and extrafocal patterns, superb. The optics defines a clean round airy disk at high power. 250 line per inch grating at 3 bands outside of focus, straight. If I interpret this correctly, that's better than 1/8th wave at the eyepiece (strehl .95). Diagonal included. Go figure :S
Case 2: 30 year old Meade 1" shaft mount. Where do I start? Paint condition a joke. Sloppy bearing fits, sloppy clock drive, iffy tracking, etc. After a day of complete tear down and refitting she "ain't-too-bad". Damp time from a good rap: less than 2 seconds. Stable enough to get precise focus during use at 560x.
Add a Celestron tripod (with a machined adapter) and you have a complete, very stable, high performance telescope. Did I plan it this way? Nope. Life has a way of throwing little surprises. I'm glad that this one was a good one
As a telescope maker for over 30 years I have had my share of plans that turned out to be a bust. This scope combination makes me sit back and chuckle because I didn't plan its well working outcome 8) Anyone else with a similar experience?
Keith
Sure looks nice on paper. If they pull this off we are talking about a 6" apo (for those of us that build our own) at a cost well below ( I would guess about 20 to 25%) what you would pay for the cheapest commercial unit 8)
