ATM Restoring a 6" coude-ref' - update

[Assaf Berwald <meshoamam@yahoo.com>]

Greetings,
This evening I finally got to set up the Wachter 6"
coude-refractor in our club's observatory. Although I
didnt expect to find major defects in the shafts I was
surprised to find both of them extremely smooth with
no noticable play anywhere! It amazes me that a 35
years old instrument is preforming better than
brand-new scopes in this term.
As expected, collimation was quite a bit off and
without too much time I didnt attempt to improve it.
However the scope still produced great images of the
half-moon even with a cheap Meade MA25mm. This was the
scope's first light in the past 13 years.

Unlike what I planned , I will not shorten the
declination counterweight bar for now. Hopefully I can
find a way to mount the scope in its current shape
without taking too much space in the observatory's
balcony, where it will be mounted under a retracteble
shelter.
The next step is to design and build the shelter for
this scope and once this is ready and the scope can
peramently be assembelled outside I'll turn my
attention to its 90mm coronograph.

Hopefully I have pictures from this evening scanned
and posted within a few days, will keep you all
updated.

Well....just wanted to share some of the excitement of
this evening;)...
Thanks again for all the informative posts Ive
recieved at the very beginning of this project.

Clear skies,
Assaf B.


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