[ATM] Some notes regarding the Mersenne telescope

["Clyde Bone" <clydebone@zipnet.us>]

Some notes regarding the Mersenne telescope

If the paraboloids are well made, with quality flats and a good refractor
the images will be very good and stars sharp to the edge of the field.
The Mersenne system is an anastigmat and the field is very flat.
The 30 inch now resides in a rotating observatory building designed
by Ted Hume and the collimation and alignment have not been tweaked
in three years.  The building is chained and boomed to a concrete slab
and it takes about fifteen minutes to be ready to observe-- from a sitting
position.
The most difficult part of construction is the figuring of the secondary
mirror.  Pressing a mask made from heavy kraft paper and folded and
cut to the shape of one of the members of the "rose petal" family
(optigami), and then using short fast strokes and a turntable proved to
be most useful.
If the scope is designed so that the refractor is as close to the secondary
as possible, the low power finder field is easily masked out by placing
a disc of black poster board behind the secondary.  This would not work
using the Gregorian configuration.

Clyde Bone
3-19-07
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