Saturday, April 30, 2016

Carl's 16" -- A Simple Solution . . .

After considering some ideas about how to transport the upper ring safely,
Carl and I hit on a simple solution. Four spacers held by the truss blocks
keep the upper ring safely in place during transport and storage.

The mirror box and upper ring "nest" nicely into the rocker box.


Friday, April 29, 2016

Carl and his 16" F4.5 . . .

My good friend Carl, from Sunnyvale, California, came down to
convert his 7-year-old Dobstuff strut to a new truss design.

Once the components were completed, it only took us
3 days to assemble his telescope -- he'll finish the
wood with color and/or varnish once he returns home/

Here's Carl with his 16" F4.5 completed.


His "original" strut telescope built in 2007.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Joe's 14" with Shroud . . .

Joe's 14" F4.5 with Park optics is fitted with a shroud from Heather. The 
elasticized  material fits snugly -- perfect for those light polluted observing sites..


Add caption

Thursday, April 21, 2016

10" Lightbridge Rocker Box . . .

Jim's 10" Lightbrdige Rocker box is complete. Note
the "break" on the observer side for changes in eyepiece weights.



Here's a note from Jim about his new rocker box:

"Dennis – 

I received the rockerbox today…it fits great and looks great!  I look forward to getting it outside, but we’re looking at 6-10 inches of snow potential tonight, so I’ll have to wait a couple more days. Thanks again and I’ll let you know how it works out after an evening of observing!

Jim"


I use a "ball bearing" lazy susan on this size rocker box and telescope.
Just to the left of the ground "foot" is a "friction break" so the
azimuth motion can be controlled.


Monday, April 18, 2016

A 10" Lightbridge Rockerbox . . .

A 10 Lightbridge rocker box upgrade for Jim in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
This is all Baltic birch construction for durability. It's a beautiful wood, too.


A 12" and 16" Kit . . .

A 12" full kit for Terry in Albany, Georgia. The kit will include primary mirror,
secondary, spider, focuser and mirror cell.

Terry's 12" Rocker Box.

A 16" kit for Carl in Sunnyvale, California. Carl will come on down to
the shop while we both "assemble" the kit for his 16" F4.5 telescope.

Fun!!

Friday, April 15, 2016

16" F4.5 from a DobSTUFF Kit . . .

A 16" F4.5 from a DobSTUFF kit built by one of our customer
s in Australia. Here are his comments:

I bought this 16" Dobstuff kit ages ago for my 16" f4.5 Mark Suchting mirror. I finally got around to putting it together. I modified it a little to accept a wire sling. I used extra thick walled aluminum tubes for the struts and extra clamps. I am very pleased with justhow well it all works and can highly recommend Dobstuff Scopes..

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Brian's Beauty . . .

Brian, and his son,  in Temple Terrace, Florida, finished a beautiful
 telescope from one of our kits. Note the Easy Transport Telescope,
 dew shield and dual finders. The color, I think, is Red Sedona.

A beautiful job!!


This is a "remake" of Brian's Orion XT-10 Telescope





Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Altitude Bearings and Rocker Box Sides....

Marty, in Moline, Illinois, needed a set of altitude bearings and rocker box
sides for his 10" telescope project. The altitude bearings are 20" in diameter.


Visible in the photo, also, are the Teflon bearings and bearing laminate strips.

Monday, April 4, 2016

A 6-point Flotation Mirror Cell for Dan in Pittsburgh, PA.

My mirror cells are optimized with Plop. This one is for Dan's 17.5" Coulter mirror

The adjustable rear mounting bolts will fit any tube size up to 24" or more.

Joe's 14" F4.5 Truss Telescope is Complete. . .



The Altitude Bearing Encoder, DSC stalk and Sky Commander.


More of the Rocker box and DSC. Note the mirror cover
has been removed. The custom color is "Early American".


A single fan will help cool the 14" primary mirror
on its all aluminum 9-point flotation mirror cell.


Joe chose a red Moonlite focuser to contrast with his choice of
custom color. The spider is a 4-vane curved-vane Destiny. Note
the Telrad installed above the focuser.