Image of the day

Captured by
Gerald Elkin

House Finch

About Astromart

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: Harold Sarber

July 31, 2003 03:43 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Discovery 10" DHQ conversion to truss

Posted By Harold Sarber
I finished my conversion of a Discovery 10" DHQ to a portable nested truss scope. The conversion cost approximately $200 in wood & parts and took about 80 hours of labor over a 2-month period. Now I'm thinking about converting my 14" PDHQ to a nested truss. Too many projects. Too little time. :-(

Harry

December 5, 2003 03:12 AM Forum: Telescope Making

10" nested truss

Posted By Harold Sarber
Here's my version of portable. It's a converted Discovery 10" DHQ. It collapses down to a box a little over 17" per side.

Harry

March 4, 2004 03:44 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Current Project

Posted By Harold Sarber
Finally got to the hardware store today so I could finish this diagonal mirror holder. Guess where it's going? More pictures tomorrow.

Harry

March 8, 2004 12:29 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Telescope Remaking

Posted By Harold Sarber
Ok, so this really isn't telescope making, but if anyone is interested here's a link to my current progress on my ETX70AT makeover.

http://homepage.myeastern.com/~hfs/Projects/ETX70/ETX70.html

Once I finish this up and another project (Roboscoped dobfractor mount) I'm going back to telescope making - converting my 14" Discovery DHQ into a portable nested truss (maybe with GOTO!). Lots of good threads going on right now. Gives me lots of ideas for reducing weight.

Harry

November 30, 2004 03:25 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Re: Want a good laugh?

Posted By Harold Sarber
WHOA! What a blast from the past! I didn't even have to read through the thread to recognize those controls. True, it's a doctored picture, but those controls are for operating a nuclear powered submarine. The two wheel thingies are the throttle controls for the main engines - the large wheel for forward and the small wheel for astern. The Reactor Operator sits in the middle and uses that small handle in the middle to control the reactor. The Electrical Operator sits to the right and controls all the electricity on the submarine.

How do I know? USS Philadelphia SSN-690 1979-1984

Too scary!

Harry
p.s. Man, I'm feelin' old!

December 26, 2004 06:31 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Merry Christmas (to me! )

Posted By Harold Sarber
Well, I finally got around to building the truss for my 14" Discovery dob optics. It still needs some tweaks, but it's close enough that I can get it back out under the stars sucking up photons. Nothing fancy, just your basic truss made from the parts off of the Discovery dob and the rest from Home Depot and McMaster-Carr (threaded knobs).

Harry

December 28, 2004 12:10 AM Forum: Telescope Making

2nd First Light

Posted By Harold Sarber
Since this mirror started out as a tube dob I can't really call it first light.

I didn't stay out long. It's 12F outside right now. I just wanted to do a rough collimation and check my focus point. The secondary only needed a couple of little tweaks, but the primary was off by a mile. I expected it to be a little closer than it was. I touched that up and then checked focus. I had used some wooden trusses to test for the proper length so I would only have to drill the holes in the aluminum trusses just once. All my eyepieces came to focus and I had plenty of travel in both directions.

The wind started blowing so I took a quick picture and brought the scope back in the house.

Harry

August 16, 2006 01:24 AM Forum: Telescope Making

Dobfractor mount

Posted By Harold Sarber
I guess this isn't really telescope making. It's more like telescope mount making.

Anyway, I've owned quite a few different scopes over the years, but I've never owned a 6" f/8 refractor. Well, I finally picked one up on Astromart, but I needed a mount for it. After scouring the archives here and other places on the internet for information I built a dobfractor mount for it. Attached is a picture with the fakey counterweight (old solid brass lamp base). I'm working on something a little better.

Harry
p.s. More pics at:
http://homepage.myeastern.com/~hfs/Projects/Dobfractor/dfmount.htm

June 9, 2007 10:53 PM Forum: Telescope Making

14" Roboscope

Posted By Harold Sarber
Tracking with a dob came up in the Telescope Equipment thread and I thought I'd show everyone how I converted my 14" truss to Goto using a Meade DS-80 mount, a 497 Autostar, and 2 focusser knobs. In the Equipment thread I said it cost about $200 for parts, but now that I think about it, it was probably closer to $300.

Here's a link to the project:

http://homepage.ct.metrocast.net/~hfs/Projects/Robo14/robo14.htm

Harry

March 12, 2008 03:22 PM Forum: AstroMart FAQ

Support Payment

Posted By Harold Sarber
Just to let everyone know, you can use a Gift Card for support payment. I emailed Herb about it and he said you can use them for support payment, but not for new accounts.

So dig out those Gift Cards you got for Christmas (Visa, MasterCard, etc. - not specific store cards) and use them for a good cause - Astromart!!!

Harry

Funding Member

Sponsors


View all sponsors

Search