Diagonal Mount-for Ed

[AstroTasmania]

Hi Ed,
I should not post a new item in someone elses thread, easy to do but a no no. Fingers rapped!

Hi Ed,

Sorry that I missed your question, thanks to hawk-eye Ray, he alerted me to your request. (thanks Ray) - I started taking some shots this am of the various parts and will post some images soon when I have the next stage done, so that you can see how it all works. A bit more to it than I thought, always is when modifying a piece of gear!

I needed to make it adjustable in all directions and still be rock solid, which it is and suits the rest of the construction. This is a telescope you would like to have, the kids could use it as a climbing structure during the day! amazingly for all its size & weight, (needs a crane to lift the fork), its dome is 0.5 smaller than my 12" scope dome-(4m), which one day will house myfork mounted 16".

Here is a link to the 16" scope in question:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AstroTas...opus12June2006

Pics coming soon.

Clear skies...

Will be off-line for a few days while I put all my spare time into theis ready for the Pluto Occultation on 31st this month.

[orion]

Sorry Shevill I can't access the link. No worries I'll wait for the pics.:thumbsupmate:

[AstroTasmania]

Hi Ed,

Try this, it worked for me.

http://picasaweb.google.com/AstroTasmania/PlutoOccultationMtCanopus12June2006

Regards

Shevill

[orion]

That one worked!

They sure don't build them like they used to! That's a great looking scope strong and sturdy.
I bet you it hasn't lost a beat since it was built.

[AstroTasmania]

Hi Ed,

It is close to 50 years old and had nothing done to it until last year. I was associated with it when I first came to Tasmania, so have a long history with it.

I am fitting shaft encoders and an Argo Navis next couple of days, we had all the main mirrors (4) re-aluminised & quartz coated last year.

It has a Newtonian top hat and works at f/4.4 therebouts, also a separate Cassegrain top hat with a convex secondary down to a removable third flat mirror to beam through the right Dec axis or rotate it through the left Dec axis onto another flat in the polar axis down to another flat and into the spectrograph room.

As you said, they don't build them like this anymore. I could make good use of it on my block, but it is only 5 minutes up the road from me and 1.1km in a straight line.

All in all, avery interesting project.

Just need clear skies...

Shevill