leonardo2012

The poor seeing in UK makes this an ambitious astro-imaging platform. At 3825mm efl the sampling is 0.3 arc secs/pixel for 6um pixels on a CCD. The 66mm field with perfect 5um star images will never be realised in practice unless it goes into orbit! Two of these available if anyone interested - correction better than Planewave CDK across spectrum from 404nm to 830nm. Alignment of corrector lens group is only critical in terms of any slight tilting - easily adjusted. Obviously, I will not give away the exact prescription for the corrector lens - please do not ask! The fork mount and 8" polar shaft bearings sit idle awaiting completion of a fibreglass dome - I am only too aware that at f8 the exposures will be relatively long and really this instrument is more suited to good dark skies and a pro CCD camera.

Notice the 'string' drives - actually very flexible stainless steel braided wire. More rigid than most (too) small worm and wheel drives and with autoguiding, very smooth and stable. Does not rely on any precision engineering at all. There is no backlash as such, but the wire is held with a spring on one end just enough so that the gear drive shaft doesn't slip. Viola - built-in safety clutch.