Posts Made By: James C. Doty

Is CPT still in business? I've had no luck getting replies to my email or telephone inquiries.

With all of the advancements in Goto software, how difficult would it be to drive a flat mirror mounted on an alt-az fork mount for a siderostat? I guess pointing the mirror would be the same as pointing a telescope except that the software would have to compensate for the fact that any angular shift of the mirror is doubled by reflection. Has anybody tried this?

How do you program a Meade Autostar controller to move a telescope 1/2 the angular distance for a given GOTO command? This would compensate for the doubling by reflection of the angular shift of a siderostat steering flat.

Thanks.

I’ve been looking at this design, too. The advantages I can see with the Cape Newise is shorter tube and lower cost. An 8” Mak-Newt from a U.S. dealer costs about $4,300 and is 47” long. An 8” Cape Newise is about $3,000 (plus shipping and import fees which are not insignificant) and is 25” long. The cost gap widens with the 12” Newise. A 12” Mak-Newt costs about $15,000 versus $8,000 for the 12” Cape Newise. I’d be worried about keeping all of those optical components collimated.