A 16" Lightbridge Rocker Box Upgrade . . .

August 6, 2014 -- I received a nice email from Elliott. Here's what he had to say:

"Hi Dennis, well I did two tests -- test one was putting the base in my wife's car (the one we''re using for the AZ trip in Oct) and it fit just fine so that was really good news, then I took the base to the back of the house and tested how easy it was to assemble the scope using the new base and that worked very well until I realized I had not inserted the bolt for the friction bearing, so I learned my lesson, took scope apart, then put in the bolt and re-assembled and all works well. The space on the floor is a nice improvement and I appreciate your presence in the market to help make scopes like the LB16 more portable. Elliott."

A 16" Lightbridge rocker box upgrade for Elliott in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

A Shroud and an Idea . . .

For those of you who may have a 6-pole truss, or even one of my 3-pole strut telescopes -- here's a great idea for the use of a shroud. See Don's comments and photos:

Hi Dennis,

I bought one of your 6 pole strut kits a few years ago.  I can't remember if I showed you my solution for the 6 pole shroud.  I drilled small holes in the center of the pole support block and in the upper ring and inserted a fiberglass tent pole between each set of struts.  The tent poles can be cut to any length needed.   The tent poles provides support for a shroud to prevent it from falling into the light path.  I used a small hula hoop around the center of the telescope to support the very light tent poles.

I thought you might be interested to show others that a shroud will fit nicely.  I bought my shroud from Heather's Shrouds online.

Don, 

Pembina, North Dakota.

A 12" for Terry in Albany, GA.

Here's a nice 12" built from one of our kits by Terry
In Albany, Georgia. Note the two finders, and intermediate
ring (ETT) option. A dew shield is included.

A 16" Telescope, 16" Rocker and Coulter Rocker ...

Marc's 16" F4.5 with Swayze mirror is virtually complete.
Note the large finder on the upper string. Strings also.

The "mirror box" with cover. The bottom end of  the strings
are visible. Note the front of the rocker box -- with struts.

The beginnings of a rocker box upgrade
for a 16" Lightbridge telescope. 

Finally, a kit for a 10.1" Coulter Telescope.

Marc's 16" -- A Lightweight Rocker Box . . .

Marc's wanted to save some weight and asked me to build a
"strut" rocker box.  I've used this design in the past.

I like the look and finish of the "strut rocker"

A 10" F6 with Conical Mirror for Dave . . .

The 10" Royce conical mirror on its cell.

The spider is a Destiny curved-vane spider.

A custom mirror cover is included.

Detail of the conical mirror. It has a center "donut"
for ease during collimation.

The photo, taken a near sunset, has an interesting quality.
The telescope is outside for a final "star test".

The rear showing the mirror cell. The conical mirror is
held in place with a center 1/2" nylon bolt, spring and nut.

Dave chose to use a Helical focuser. Nice!

The telescope is so light and the motions are so smooth
that I needed to install a "break" for some motion control.
It works great.