ATM: Scope and Platform Complete

["Art DeBrito" <ionheavens@hotmail.com>]

My scope and platform are complete. Well, as complete as one can be at any 
given time. It is a 22 inch, f/5, 4 inch diagonal. The primary is by Nova 
Optical, (I chickened out on the mirror.) The wood is 3/4 inch baltic birch. 
The finish is Plasti-Kote Flek Stone. This is a craft paint that looks like 
granite. I coated it with a polyurethane. It has the appearance of Wilson 
Art laminate I used for the bearings. The tubes are 1 1/4 inch aluminum, ( I 
found them at Ace Hardware, special order.) I plan on changing the Orion R&P 
focuser soon.) The spider is from Astro-Systems, along with the teflon and 
telrad. I used Kydex for the secondary assembly and lined the inside with 
adhesive backed, black velvet. It all sounds so simple now, even though it 
took almost a year to build. A special thanks is given to Kriege and Berry 
for their book _The_Dobsonian_Telescope_. Thanks to all on this list who 
provided advice on both the scope and the platform. I have really enjoyed 
reading this list over the last year.

The images so far are super. Steve at Nova did take a while to grind the 
mirror, but said it would be worth the wait and it was! First light was 
incredible. The other night I caught a moon shadow transit on Jupiter, and 
the seeing was not all that good. I still have not taken it to a really dark 
site, but cannot wait to do so.

The platform uses angle aluminum and roller blade bearings for the base. The 
drive is a 2 hertz sync motor with a bolt stock on the motor and platform. I 
calculated the size of the circles to create the correct rotation. There is 
a little wander in the eyepiece, which I believe is due to a slight bow in 
the bolt stock on the motor side. The circles on the upper half of the 
platform, (not shown,) are clad with 1/8 inch aluminum.

In a recent email with Chuck Shaw, he asked me to post some pictures of the 
platform. I have also included two of the scope. They can be seen at:
         http://photos.yahoo.com/ionheavens

-art debrito
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