Re: [ATM] Hercules v2.0

["Daniel Bakken" <deepsky4565@comcast.net>]

Hi all,

We returned from the Oregon Star Party last weekend. This was the first time
under dark skies with the new scope. Overall most things worked as designed.
I need more gear reduction on my azimuth drive. I will replace the 2" roller
that rides on the inside of my 48" base ring with a smaller one, between 1"
and 1.5". The engagement of the az drive is not elegant as I want, and may
redesign it as well. I also have intermittent encoder error, which is
probably slippage, I need to do further investigation. The uta is not as
stiff as I would have liked, and may eventually redesign and rebuild it. My
collimation bolts need to be reworked. They turned out longer than initially
designed, and allow some movement of the mirror and cell. Overall this is
very minor compared to the risk I thought I was taking in some of the
radical design changes that were made. One surprise was using binoviewers
for the first time on it. I was pretty knocked out that I didn't perceive
any hit in brightness at least subjectively. 

Thanks to all on the list that helped me out. I'd like to specifically thank
Dan Gray, Mel Bartels, Bill Cotten, Tom Krajci, Bruce Sayre, Greg Babcock,
and Howard Banich. Sorry if I forgot anyone on the list! I'll try to keep
the list updated.  

Daniel Bakken

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Lindner [mailto:mikell@optonline.net] 
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 11:01 AM
To: Daniel Bakken
Subject: Re: [ATM] Hercules v2.0

Daniel Bakken wrote:
> Just an update to the list on my 41" scope that most of you are probably
> familiar with. It has been completely redesigned and rebuilt. Last night
was
> "first light" for the new design.

Wow! Congratulations, and welcome back to the list. So how does the new 
scope perform compared to the previous versions?

-- 
Michael Lindner
http://www.starastronomy.org *** http://home.att.net/~mikel
http://www.atmsite.org *** http://www.atmlist.net

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