Wanna make a scope? Or better still, grind a mirror yourself. Or, you have some good tips in making a really useful accessory? This is the place to show what your hands can do...
ariefm71 wrote:OK, a bit of trivia first, name the 4 EPs (brand) I will be using on this scope as shown on the ep selection table:
1. 36mm 70* = Siebert 2" observatory
2. 12.5mm 52* = Celestron Ultima (or Tak LE)
3. 3.8mm 52* = Orion Ultrascopic
4. 2.5mm 60* = dunno, but i'm in the market for such an ep too
Wow!...very nice, Arief. This is very informative and inspirational for those who wants to build their own scope. I am sure everyone can't wait for First Light to look thru your new scope!
You must have given much thought to the design and execution. I wish you luck along with the bold ATM endeavor.
As you mentioned that most components are coming in place, I hope you will be able to complete this project before the next Mersing trip in May.
Thanks for sharing the NEWT program by Dale Keller. It is one of the most intuitive programs out there, so much so that one can start designing without impeded by a steep learning curve. Pity that softwares are not written in this fashion anymore.
Is there a reason why you didn’t go for carbon fibre truss? since one of the key design criterior is weight.
If your final 10” f/5 asssembled OTA fall under 10kg, it will form an excellent basis for others to emulate. IIRC most 10” f/5 newtonian (non truss) tends to weight in the range 14-16kg.
1. 36mm 70* = Siebert 2" observatory
2. 12.5mm 52* = Celestron Ultima (or Tak LE)
3. 3.8mm 52* = Orion Ultrascopic
4. 2.5mm 60* = dunno, but i'm in the market for such an ep too
Elton, you're correct for the #1 and #2 (Tak LE), #3 is 7.5mm Tak LE + 2x barlow, #4 is 5mm B/TMB + 2x barlow (sorry, i never mentioned the barlow)
Last edited by ariefm71 on Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks Richard (Low), Cat, and Matthew for the encouragements. My target completion date is actually next week. So, yes, the scope should be ready for the next Mersing trip.
I have a lot of discussion with Albert Highe when I attempted to use one of his scope's designs (http://pw2.netcom.com/~ahighe/astroequ.html), he mentioned that the key to rigid truss pole structure is the size of trusses. Scopes with under-sized diameter trusses (like the UTI) suffer a lot of flexes no matter how strong the truss material is, therefore I decided to use 1" OD poles. It will be cost prohibitive to use 1" OD Carbon Fiber trusses, so strong T6061 alum poles were chosen. From my calculation (on paper at least) the weight saving by using CF vs T6061 trusses is not that much.
