SCOPE
STORY
10"
F 5.6
Astronomy
is a good thing; and, as usual, I worked my way through some smaller
scopes. I had custom made an 18" Sky Valley Scope. Orion telescopes
used to have a parking lot sale once a year. My friend, John Wright,
and I went over to "scope" things out. John got some goodies,
and I came home with a 10" mirror that a fool had returned
because of some teeeensie chips on the vertical side of the glass.
I did some testing and found that it was perfect Only $85 for a
$400 mirror. I figgered Id make a porta-potty
out of it someday.
Then
we got an invite to a wedding on the big island of Hawaiioh
duhhMauna Kea, DA MECCA!
So
I thunk up something I could do to make that trip da best since
the 18" was a bit large for carry-on.
So
for four months I would come home from work, make a part or two,
set up a mold, mix up some epoxy, heat the thing to trigger the
reaction and go to bed. Next day, samo-samo. I wanted to have a
carry-on rig, and it had to meet FAA bs rules.
The
stick is 6 half-inch carbon tubes with 0 flex at four pounds horizontal
pull at 5 feet from the clamped end. That meant I had to design
a bearing system that had less than four pounds resistance. I had
done a favor for a guy on the job I was working, so he gave me a
3/4" thick slab of aluminum, which I took to Johns house
and using his milling machine, created the elevation wheels. Thank
you, John.
The
Great Cheeseburger obviously was testing my "nesting instincts,"
cause everything had to nest like those little Russian doll
thingys.
To
get the secondary mirror to absolute alignment, I set up the mirror
box true, square and level, hung a plumb bob off a beam, and measured
repeatedly until I was sure I was dead on; then epoxied on the .074"
thick piece, then the secondary mount from ProtoStar.
About
the coolest thing I did was to cam mount the side wheels
to shift the weight of the primary mirror back to maintain balance
as the eyepiece is loweredyou can go to 15 degrees below horizontal,
and it stays put. That was so I could go as low as I could at Mauna
Kea.
The
case with scope weighs 24 pounds 0 ounces; then the stick goes into
a fishing pole case.
Aerospace
Composite Materials is where I got the carbon stuff.
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