planetman83

I left some space in order to be more stable. My ramp is 28cm wide.

It works only with iphone? I don't own an iphone.

I already made the conversion.

For the record, this was the previous telescope. (As I said before, I make a reconstruction of a used telescope). Before: Total weight: 138kg Unable to transfer it After Total weight: 84kg Able to transfer (I hope)

I assembled and tested the telescope last night for the first time. The alt and az movements were good but a little bit stiffer than what I want. I will make some changes to this matter. The truss poles need to be cut at about 1cm as expected and planned to focus with everything, with the televue paracorr setting to A (if I use other settings, the poles need to be cut more but I don't want to cut them more than needed for now, what do you suggest about it? ) Regarding the balance, it needs about 2kg at the front (I had planned to need about 1.5kg in order to be able to add filter wheels or anything else at the upper cage later but I think I overdid it). I was also be afraid of being front heavy. I will add some counterweights at the upper truss poles. I will also make a light shroud and a light baffle.

What is the weight of your telescope? Which wheels do you use? Can you upload a photo of the centre axle wheel system?

Great idea! I will make the same modification. I am going to test all these things today, if the weather lets me.

Guys, I am ready to test the telescope when the weather lets me. I forced to move the roller bearings to the back and the teflons to the front because the roller bearings jump when they go on the alt bearings gap. I think the telescope is beautiful except of the small circles of wood putty of different colour you can see on the mirror box. This is not my job and I didn't know how to work the wood and what to do at each step.

Guys, what do you think? I managed to make it fit in my car. I have to make some improvements to the wheels so it can go up in the car easier.

I was too busy all these days with the telescope. I am trying to make it as good as small as possible in every dimension. The wheels with the bars inside so the width is minimum without getting in the way of the motion of the mirror box. and as low as possible. My goal now is the rocker + mirror box + the upper cage to be able to fit in my car. My car's trunk height is small (63cm), so it is a bit tricky. I have to do a few tweaks in order to make it happen.

I received the second and final wood batch from the cnc cutting machine. I will now glue the groups of 2 pieces of wood. 15+12=27mm for the alt bearings and 12+12=24mm for the rocker up wood and sides.

The width is 24mm, exactly like the width of the rocker sides. The grouping of 2 rollers also helps if I add goto for the use of steel wire rope to move between the rollers.

The altitude roller bearings system made from stainless steel is ready for installation!

Something else I want to do is to cut the bearings. The half bearing will be permanently on the mirror box and I am going to put the other half when setting up the telescope. The reason is to fit in the car. My concern is where the 2 bearings are going to join each other, will I have jerky motion? I need to put the stainless steel pieces perfectly side to side.

The reason I want to use metal is because the roller bearings motion on formica is not so smooth. So is it better to use thinner stainless steel? For example 0.8 or 1mm thickness? And glue it on the wood? The roller bearings will be in groups of 2.

I am going to glue aluminum or stainless steel on the wooden bearings so the roller bearings will roll on it. On azimuth and altitude. What do you suggest? What is better for better motion on the teflon?

Also, because of the mirror box inside, if something is inside of the rocker sides will be a problem because the mirror box will hit on it. So I chose to make this stainless steel roller system in order to be more rigid and small.

If I put the rollers in the rocker side wood, the wood need to be at least 32mm wide. And the bearings 36mm or so. And the weight goes up. Also, the weight of the tube assembly will be around 70kg eyepieces included, so will I feel more comfortable if the rollers are on stainless steel parts, also I can drill the steel at very close to the edge required. My rocker side wood is now 24mm wide.

And this will be the alt bearing system. The right bearing will be adjustable and I will add only if needed. So in 2 points I will use roller bearings and on the other 2 points, formica.

Guys, this is the last simulation up to date. The first sketch is the bottom of the rocker box with the az ball bearings. I am planning to replace 1 group of bearings with a piece of teflon pad. The 2nd sketch is the rocker up wood with the ring made of stainless steel on where the bearings are going to roll. I still want to design the alt ball bearing system to complete the rocker box.

Guys, I managed to finish the tube assembly. I made the weighing and the result is that I need a bearing of 1.4x mirror's diameter if I place it 1 centimeter above the lowest mirror box's point like in the sketch. What do you suggest? Making 1.4x bearings and placing them like in the sketch? Or is it better to make smaller bearings placing them higher or bigger bearings placing them lower? There is a small problem using 1.4x bearing like in the sketch. I cannot connect the 2 bearings in the higher end with a tube because the 2 trusses are in the way.

I managed to build the secondary cage. I changed the secondary holder, so the total height of the upper cage went from 28cm previously designed to 25cm. I hope it will not produce astigmatism this way. The weight of the upper cage is about 5.3kg. I will add 1.5mm birch plywood inside instead of kydex so the weight will go to around 5.8kg. I also added the same fan panel on the mirror cell that existed in the previous telescope.

I made the secondary holder designed before. I glued the mirror on a piece of birch plywood with silicone for glass/aquariums. I also used a second glue (3M) for safety with a cord. I don't know if I will have astigmatism. I guess I will find out with the first light. If this is a problem, I will think something else.

Very useful information. I am also wondering: Do I have to glue them at the temperature close to what I will usually stargaze? so both materials be at their dimensions they will be when I stargaze?

The carbon trusses are HERE. They look amazing. Their finish is matt and their dimensions are 30mm*28mm*2000mm. The weight of every 2m tube is only 258gr !