My second DIY Reflecting Telescope

[astro mick]

Hi.

I thought you might be interested in this.

Back in the old days,people made their own scopes,as the choice was,nt what it is to-day.So I thought I,d have go myself.

This is the second Scope I built,and it was 250mm F5 Newtonian Reflector.

My first job was to lay the concrete base,for the Mount.

I then cast again in concrete a substantial Base block angled at my Latitude,into which I embedded 4 M12 Bolts to carry a 12mm Flat Base Plate,to match the size of angled face.

I then drew up plans for the Fork Mount,and acquired some substantial cut-off of box Metal.

I had a local forger weld these up into the Fork Arms.

I then sourced 50MM Dia Stainless Steel Shaft,and travelled miles to aquire.This was then welded to the base of the Fork.

I acquired to pillow block bearings to accommodate the shaft.The bottom of the shaft rested against a thick metal plate,with a ball bearing between.

Next came the Scope.

I used 2x1 for the frame work,and covererd in the ends with 12mm ply.The setting circles I made out of ply,to around 30cm Dia.Also I made a Mirror Cell out OF Ply,with spring loaded bolts to adjust the primary mirror.

I acquired two further side bearings for the Declination,and they accommodated 25mm Dec shafts.

To complete I bought the gear and gear wheels from Beacon Hill,and the optics from David Hinds.It was R/A Driven with a muliti speed hand controller.

This scope was protected by a Run off Shed that I built after reading about Patrick Moores.

Eventually I built a 3.5 mtr Domed Observatory,where the Dome ran on Golf Balls,another idea I pinched from Patrick.

But that's another story.

Sadly I ended up leaving where I lived,and had to demolished both the scope and the Dome,but it gave me years of pleasure,and kept me quite busy.

Not too mant photo,s exist now,but I have found one of the scope.

Well I hope I have,nt bored you all,but I just felt nostalgic.

All the best.

Mick.

PS.To add in case you wondered heavy weights were positioned around the base of the scope to assist with balancing.

[nightfisher]

That looked a nice bit of kit Mick

[Dave Lloyd]

What year did you build it Mick? It looks proper good old school.

[tarotrocola]

Bittersweet story.

[astro mick]

Thanks guys.

Dave,cant remember the exact year,but it would have been late eighties,early nineties.

Mick.