Thursday, April 30, 2020

Hiten's 14" Getting Close...

This nifty 14" F3.5 is small and powerful!! I'll be finishing
the rocker box tomorrow and installing encoders for Hiten's
super-neat telescope....

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Ken and his 12.5" -- First Light...

Ken and his 12.5" strut telescope -- First Light.
Ken and  his wife Joyce live in Candler,
North Carolina.


Tuesday, April 28, 2020

14" F3.5 for Hiten...

A 14" telescope with struts just 42 3/8" long.
A beauty, wide field and great images.
Taking shape, the altitude bearings affixed and the rocker
box is next to get underway. Nice!!


Friday, April 24, 2020

Hiten's 14" F3.5 Telescope...

An observatory-grade 3-vane spider and Moonlite 2-speed 2"
crayford focuser make up the beginning of this telescope


Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Ken's 12.5" Telescope -- Completed...

A beautiful primary makes Ken's 12.5" F4.8 shine. Note the strings,
primary dew shield, JMI focuser and 8x50 finder.
 
A Destiny 3-vane curved-vane spider and Antares secondary.


A Note from Carl and his 10" Kit ...

Dennis:

Success! The dowels cut to 8.5 inches focused my range of EP’s. I am going to shorten the length to 8.25 inches as the shorter FL EP’s came a little close to the inner limit of travel while there was still plenty of room at the outer limit when the 55mm focused. I’ve attached two pictures. Note that in my haste to set up I have the alt bearings on the wrong side. Now it’s time to disassemble, cut the upper tubes, set the balance point then start the finishing process.

Carl





Thursday, April 16, 2020

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Altitude Bearings . . .

An interesting contrast between the altitude bearings for a 12"
telescope (L) and a 14" telescope (R) under construction. It seems
size does matter!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Ken's 12.5" F4.8...

Now that the OTA is pretty much complete,
the rest of the telescope goes pretty quickly.

Monday, April 13, 2020

A 14" Strut Telescope for Hiten . . .

A couple of telescopes underway, a 12.5" for Ken and 14" strut
for Hiten. He'll use a Hubble Optics primary/secondary as
well as the Easy Transport Telescope option.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

A 12.5" Strut Telescope for Ken in Candler, N.C...

The "top ring" for Ken's 12.5" telescope.  Ken sent along his JMI
crayford focuser to use for his telescope. The spider is a Destiny
3-vane curved-vane with with new Antares secondary mirror.
The OTA rings for Ken's 12.5" telescope are underway.
This telescope will include "strings" for added
rigidity and a 9-point mirror cell.





Sunday, April 5, 2020

A 10" Kit for Carl. . .

The neat, and unusual, piece f this kit is a full upper tube assembly
for this "strut" telescope. It be interesting to see the telescope
come together. I hope to post a photo here.
 
All packaged up and ready to go!!



Friday, April 3, 2020

And More on Carl's 10" Kit....

Once the rocker box is completed, I'll be very close to
completing the telescope kit..


Thursday, April 2, 2020

Rodger's 6" F9.5 Packaged and Ready To Go . . .

Rodger's 6" F9.5, seen below, is packaged into one
24"x24"x24" carton for shipping or transport.


Wednesday, April 1, 2020

A Bit More on Carl's 10" Kit ...

The rocker box sides and altitude bearings for Tom's 10 kit. I make
 the rocker box sides a "generic" length. If needed, Tom can cut
 it down a bit -- once he knows how the OTA will balance.

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

The 6" F9.5 for Rodger in Renton, Washington completed.

Note the higher dew shield to help with ambient light.

Included: Sky Commander, custom mirror cover a bit of over-sized
ground board (which lends stability to this smaller telescope).

3-vane, curved-vane spider, single-speed Moonlight focuser and Ridger
finder base. The Sky Commander sits on its "stage".