[ATM] Re: Thin Titanium Spiders & Diffraction

[Ross Sackett <rsackett00@yahoo.com>]

--- artbianconi@blast.net wrote:

> Ross, the entire telescope (15" f-4.3) is scheduled
> to be made of 
> carbon fiber. 

Wow, sounds ambitious.  I can see that it undermines
your bragging rights to have a metallic spider in
there.  Since you'll be swimming in carbon cloth and
epoxy I see no reason not to just give it a shot and
go for the curved carbon spider--you can always retro
something more conventional in there if the diffuse
diffraction is annoying.

As an alternative I might suggest a wire spider with a
CF hub: it would be stiff and even lighter than a
carbon spider, and only has a *little* metal in it. 
It would have less diffraction than the thicker curved
spider.

Can't wait to hear how it all comes out.  I've only
actually used CF as spot reinforcement on plywood
parts, though I've toyed with solid CF strips
(McMaster-Carr) as spider vanes and found that matched
thickness-for-thickness they weren't appreciably
stiffer than steel so not worth (to me) the bother.

Ross


		
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