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My 8-yr old son, Daniel, loves a good star party.
The newly rebuilt 15-inch in "cube" form, with dust covers top and bottom that are held in place with velcro. The woodwork is done in purple heart veneers and an exotic 3-D quilted maple. Every piece of this maple is different, having a unique quilted pattern. It makes a beautiful furniture piece in my living room when it's at home, in its cube form. Daniel loves to go up to the mountains with me, and is grinding his own 6-inch mirror for a scope of his own.
All set up! And it only takes about 10 minutes.
The truss tubes are 7/8" aluminum, held in place with Tectron's clamps and brackets. The knurled knobs are quick and easy to use. I like a big visual finder, so you can see my Lumicon 80mm Super Finder. To it's left, I also have an Orion EZ-Finder. Similar to a Telrad, it's a reflex finder that places a nice red dot at infinity in the sky. At home in the city, the EZ-Finder is all I need for pointing at the moon and planets, so I don't use the big Lumicon finder.
Here's where the viewing takes place! My focuser is a JSL 2" crayford design. I like the knurled knobs and extremely smooth action. I didn't want to drill into the beautiful wood to mount my finders, so I created this unique "platform" out of an aluminum strip, bent and drilled to just fit over the bolts that hold the truss tubes. The knurled knobs hold everything in place. I love it! The 80mm finder can easily be replaced by a camera, or any one of a few other small refractors that I have. They are held by a Bogen adjustable camera adapter available from Orion, using a common 1/4" x 20 mounting plate. It's very easy to align the finder with the main telescope, or point a camera anywhere in the sky while using the telescope as a stable platform.
My 2.14" diagonal and the beautiful quilted maple.
This photo doesn't begin to do justice to the woodwork and the 3-D effect in the quilted maple. You also see another angle of the platform that holds my finders. It's held by one knurled knob/bolt on the left, and two on the right side. I bent the aluminum piece in such a way that I can still attach my black shroud for a light shield.
The woodwork even covers the end of the cage, as shown here. The cage is actually very lightweight. It's hollow, being formed of thin veneers around a structure of balsa wood struts. The inside of the cage is lined with flat black formica. It holds a Novak spider and my 2.14" secondary. I use a laser to collimate the mirrors.
This is where the magic takes place.
The mirror cell is entirely homemade, using an 18-point flotation cell, and a sling to hold my relatively thin 1" thick mirror. Steve welded the frame together, and it fits very snugly into the back of the mirror box, adding structural strength and stability to the box. The mirror only weighs 16 lbs. It has a Beral coating from Clausing, Inc. Thin mirrors like this cool very quickly and work great, if supported properly. My secondary has a 98% reflective Endurobrite coating from QSP. The mirror box, rocker, and groundboard are all made from 1/2" thick appleply, covered with these beautiful veneers.
The thin mirror cools very quickly, and then I cover the back end with this cover to stop any air currents and keep the mirror safe from little fingers, since I'm often around kids. It also increases contrast by blocking any stray light from going up the tube. It's held on very simply by velcro strips on each corner, so it's easily removed for collimation. It also protects my mirror from dust during windy afternoons at weekend star parties, while traveling in the van, and at home.
Last but not least, the shroud!
The light shroud shields the focuser from stray light, greatly enhancing the image contrast. It also stops air currents and body heat from drifting through the optical pathway, and helps keep the optics dry when the dew is heavy. It also makes an effective dust shield. It's made of a nylon backpack material, and is very strong and waterproof. It was made for me by Judy Dethloff of Telescopes & More. I hope you can join me sometime for some views through this telescope!