[ATM] Re: sonotube for telescope

[Thomas A Simmons <tasimmons@raytheon.com>]

David,

  If you're going to be man handling a 24 inch by 8 foot section of
sonotube up
on top of your Jeep, there's no way I would want to argue with you, as
you'd just
whup this old man. You must have built up fore arms that are like tree
trunks after
moving around that 3/4 inch plywood monster earlier.

  But mere mortals would examine someway of drastically reducing the weight
of the
telescope tube, which reduces the requirements on the lower mount, etc.

  Take a few hours and review some of the scopes (and the Trilateral mount)
as you find on the following link.
http://members.efn.org/~mbartels/tm/tm.html

  There are ways to do what you are attempting while at the same time
keeping the
springs from breaking on your jeep, with a side benefit of being able to
pack more than
just the scope.

Tom
Tucson, AZ


Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 22:21:46 -0400
From: "David  Williams" <dwilliams1128@earthlink.net>
Subject: [ATM] sonotube for telescope
To: <atm@atmlist.net>
Message-ID: <004b01c4527f$830fee00$09cfe504@yourm5d4u9r2uv>
Content-Type: text/plain;            charset="iso-8859-1"

Hello

I had an idea that I could make an octagonal cross-sectional extruded piece
of tube made out of 3/4" plywood.  I got an Amish owned wood working
company that built coffins to cut the edges (it was something like 72.5
degrees).

Any way it fit together for a while (I had it screwed together) and then it
started to colapse.  It wasn't their fault, it was just too heavy and not
strong enough.  So I am looking for a better way to make a telescope tube.

I found a concrete company in Sturgis, MI a city nereby that has 24"
diameter by 12'.  My telescope is 20" in diameter (the mirror)  and the f #
is F 5 so it is 100".  I could cut it to 8' which is 96".  This seams okay.
Do you think that the wall thickness is allright at 3/16"?  I have a Jeep
Cherekee.  Do you think that I could put the 8' section on top and the 4'
section inside?

Thank you for your help.

David Williams
dwilliams1128@earthlink.net

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