16" F/4.2 CUAS Club Scope
This telescope is the product of work by club members.
Here's a list
of the people that contributed to it, and their contributions.
- Aart Olsen: Made the secondary holder, spider,
secondary
cage parts, side bearings and mirror cell. Acquired the secondary
mirror,
Telrad, and focuser.
- Mike Conron: Polished and figured the primary mirror
from 1" thick plate
glass.
- Mike Lockwood: Assembled the secondary cage parts,
made
the mirror box and mirror cover, cut the rocker box parts.
Assembled, balanced and
tested
the tube assembly. Final assembly after painting/finishing.
- Bob Rubendunst: Assembled the rocker box, made
wheelbarrow handles.
- John Stone: Stained bearings and focuser board,
polyurethaned wood parts, and flat black paint..
- Sean Mauney:
Donated the 16" blank, ground and partially polished, that became the
primary mirror.
- ???: Fan installation, wiring. (still needs to be
done)
Aart put quite a bit of time into making the various parts required,
perhaps
most notably the ultra-lightweight secondary holder (made from PVC) and
spider and the secondary
cage parts that keep the secondary cage very light. This is
great,
because the mirror is thin and only weighs 14 lbs, and a heavy cage
would
have meant a high balance point. For this scope, the balance
point
is about 1" below the top of the 18" high mirror box.
The secondary cage rings, rocker box, and mirror box are made from
baltic
birch plywood. The rings are 1/2" thick and the mirror box is
3/4".
The rocker box is a mixture. The side bearings are
laminated birch
veneer with a piece of poplar crossing the center of the bearing.
Here's a picture of the completed scope. Click on the image for
the
full-size photo. Other photos are included below.
