Nice Scope
Date: Sun, March 20, 2005
This website details a nice 12.5" aperture truss tube telescope with a motorized alt/azimuth mount. This scope is really close to what I want to make when I build my telescope.
There's also a lot of good information on gearing and electronics for the motorized mount, interesting stuff...
There's also a lot of good information on gearing and electronics for the motorized mount, interesting stuff...
Dave:
Well... I agree with what you have to say. Except I live in the city and will have to take the scope out into the country to use it, and our good car has a TINY trunk. So I might as well make something that can be broken down into small bits. Do a search for Miatascope (which I will link to sometime in the future...). That's what I'm shooting for.
As to size, I want to build a big one because I will probably only make 1 scope in my life, and... I want a big one... ;)
I don't know why I haven't linked to Mel Bartel's site yet, it's a really cool one.
When I build, I probably won't go for the motorization right away, I'll probably make it a simple dobbsonian, with an eye to improvement in the future if I have a good time using it.
As to size, I want to build a big one because I will probably only make 1 scope in my life, and... I want a big one... ;)
I don't know why I haven't linked to Mel Bartel's site yet, it's a really cool one.
When I build, I probably won't go for the motorization right away, I'll probably make it a simple dobbsonian, with an eye to improvement in the future if I have a good time using it.
My dobsonian was built with a piece of Sonotube and takes all of about a minute to go from the back of the wagon to being set and ready to go (longer if I want to tweak the collimation of the optics).
A scope like this might also be a bit ambitious for your first telescope. I probably should have built a 6" first and made all of my mistakes on that one rather than on the 10". Many is the time I've considered pulling the mirror out of the 10", stripping the coating and reworking the figure on the mirror.
By the way, the person who designed driver system for this scope is Mel Bartels who lives about two hours south of you. I knew him when I was involved with the Eugene Astronomical Society.