An Upper Tube Assembly for Carl's 10" Strut Kit . . .

It isn't often I make an Upper Tube Assembly for a strut telescope.
Here's Carl's UTA for his 10" kit. I especially like the red Moonlite
2-speed 2" crayford focuser. Inside is a 3-vane curved-vane
spider.

Rodger's 6" F9.5 Almost Completed . . .

A Sky Commander to be installed, and the ground
board to be completed -- Rodger's 6" telescope is just
about complete. Note the Easy Transport Telescope,
Moonlite 1-speed focuser and curved-vane spider.

A Post from Cloudy Nights!!.....

A note from a happy customer!!

Love my Dobstuff 12.5", but I had premium quality optics (purchased used from CN Classified section) installed. After I bought the optics, it took Dennis Steele about 6 weeks to build the telescope. If you want commercial optics, Dennis will install GSO mirror, Hubble, whatever brand you want.

Andy

A 6" Telescope and 10" Kit Underway . . .

A 10" kit for Carl in Berkeley, Missouri. The "strut"
telescope will have a full UTA instead of a single ring.

And, the rocker box coming together for Rodger's
6" F9.5 telescope. Lookin' good.

Good Progress on Rodger's 6" Telescope...

A bit oversized altitude bearings coming together.
These will make for a smooth motion and will
tend to stay in place when changing eyepieces.

The 6" mirror is so light, I needed to add a bit of weight to
the rear-end of the telescope. Removable 1.25# weights
do the trick. They are NOT connected to the mirror cell.

Rodger's 6" F9.5 OTA...

Beautiful optics, a Moonlite 1-speed focuser
and curved-vane spider -- with Easy Transport
Telescope option. The OTA is light and
neat looking.

More on Rodger's 6" Telescope . . .

A nice newly coated 6" F5.9. The spider is a Destiny
3-vane curved-vane with 1" secondary. A Moonlite
1-speed 2" focuser makes a nice touch.

As always, a custom mirror cover for the primary.

Rodger's 6" Telescope . . .

Coming together is Rodger's 6" strut telescope with easy
transport. Here the spider and focuser bracket are in place.

A 6" Telescope for Rodger . . .

Underway is a 6" strut telescope for Rodger in Renton, Washington.
This telescope will sport a 1-speed Moonlite focuser, 3-vane curved-
vane spider and Easy Transport option. The "premium" optics
should do an outstanding for this telescope .. .

Tom's 16" F4.5 Truss - Completed . . .

This nice truss telescope, for Tom in Salt Lake City, Utah, sports
 a 2-speed Moonlite focuser, 4-vane curved-vane spider
and wheel barrow handles.

The 16" primary sits on a 6-point mirror cell designed and optimized
with Plop. The telescope is easy to move around with the wheel barrow handles.

I custom, fitted, mirror cover protects the primary during
storage and transport.

The detail of the  4" secondary and 4-vane spider 

Another view of the Upper Tube Assembly (UTA).

A Note and Photo from Karl in Southport, N.C....

Hi Dennis:

Karl's 8" telescope and rocker box
built from one of our kits.

I have a Convertible now!

I can still put my 8” f3.8 on the equatorial mount for imaging and now I can put it on the Dob kit that Dennis built.

I made brackets to attach the removable altitude bearings. They are about 5.5”x 6” x ½” oak with ¼ round molding glued and nailed. See the pictures.

Thank you, Dennis, for working with me on this design!

I’m glad you suggested making it a little larger than I was planning since the brackets I made ended up being slightly larger than I planned.

The scope is well-balanced and moves like it should (after I cleaned out the varnish I dripped in the AZ bolt hole).

I also really like that I can grab the long side brace through the large hole, pick the mount up and it is well balanced for carrying.

Thanks again, Dennis!

Here’s wishing us all Clear Skies!

-Karl

Tom's 16" F4.5 Truss Telescope Nearly Completed ...

I just need to make some little "tweeks" and install the primary dew shield.
The wheel barrow handles are 6-feet in length with 10" pneumatic tires.

Chuck and his 16" Telescope...

Chuck, from Lakewood, Washington, stopped by to pick
up his beautiful 16" string-strut telescope. A delightful visit.

Thanks for coming down Chuck.

The telescope is all "broken down" to it's sub-assemblies and
fits into his VW just perfectly. Nice!!