Chriske

Thank you for these kind words...

Meanwhile I got company from a few friends. These two guys, Peter and Michel, are joining the 'Modelling club' at our observatory. This is what we did last weekend. LUT is now almost completely finished.

A last modification... a one hour job to transform it into a blue version.

Thanks for the kind words...😃 Nobody would ever expected to be able to make such a bino at home, for that kind of money. It all has to do with these 3D printers. I said it before there almost no limit with what you can do with these things. Best invention ever imo these 3D printers...

Nearly done. Only optics to add, but I will not have enough time to mount and tune before next weekend(our annual open door)... pity... IPD unit works perfect. Did not use linear bearings to move the two IPD parts. This time I've counted on the smooth action between PLA and polished brass rods.

I will use a boxmount(also own design) It's a bit like a barndoor mount, only much bigger and very solid. I'll add a stepper to do the tracking. The stepper's electronic is designed by my friend Henri. The mount is capable of tracking for 2 hours before I have to reset it again, but it'll do for simple stargazing. I know it's not a perfect solution, but now I have a Dob mount on top of a equatorial mount. Very easy to build and most of al very fast setup for a quick observing session. During work in our garden I installed two piers for that bino to mount on. One pier, the concrete one, is still drying and the second pier is an old tree cut of to the correct height. Each pier will contain three M16 SS threaded rods.

PID setscrews(left and right handed thread) and its holder.

Still at it, all parts printed, busy assembling. These have to hold on a bit longer, black paint still wet... This is a dummy to test all the actions before I proceeded making the final two units. These units serve as focuser and IPD adjuster at the same time. And on top of it contains the secondary(last) mirror.

Cement has the tendency to crack if it is not reinforced btw, especially used with a MoM. Cement does not withstand the high pressure I sometimes use.

I always use dental plaster to make a tiled tool.

A few years back we made 3 MoM's. Two that can handle 20" mirror and a third one capable of grinding a 10" mirror. We built the two larger machines in my workshop. They’re standing side by side and together with my best friend Marc we grinded lots of mirrors with it. That small machine we made it to install it in Marc's garage, so when he was at home he could continue working with his small MoM at home. We installed peristaltic pumps to automate these large MoM's. Every grit has it's own pump system. Feed speed of the slurry is done by electronics. The containers continuously mix the slurry to keep it homogeneous. The MoM's can be left alone for a longer time as there is a safety built in. When the containers are near empty the machines do stop automatically. The electronics part of MoM's project was made by Guy. Sadly enough he left our ATM-group. Anyway, only grit #120 was done manually because the peristaltic pumps couldn’t handle that larger grit. The reason for these two MoM's was simple. We didn’t want to spend to many hours grinding on a mirror. We started grinding early '80 and made 'a few' mirrors/telescopes. So we decided to work on more complex systems like for example a Schupmann telescope. But first we wanted to build a Stevick-Paul. A Gregorian telescope was already finished and awaits a coating session... Again, long grinding and polishing sessions are out of the question, finishing a say 10" mirror took us about 3 days. We prefer to spend more time on building/tuning the scopes itself, and obeserving of coarse. While grinding we only use 3 grits btw and do not clean in between them. Only for polishing we do clean of coarse. Sadly enough my best friend Marc passed away jan'20.(I knew the man for almost 40 years). And since then I didn’t touch the MoM's at all. Only a few weeks back now I'm thinking of restarting using my MoM. But first I need to remove that second one. That will be a very difficult task...

I have two larger MoM's in my workshop(up to 20") Most probably I would not build a MoM anymore if I'd start all over again. I would go for a fixed post grinder. Very easy to build. This site has lots of info about such fixed post grinding machines.

Still at it, almost all parts printed. The red central knob is to set IPD Blue parts contains a right/left nut. Brass rods are there to guide the units during IPD adjustments. Maybe I'll add some linear bearings(like LMUU), don't know yet. Friction between rods and PLA might be just fine.. Brown part is just an aid to collimate the second mirrors(yellow is a small dummy mirror, to check collimation from the outside). Green is a laserbeam Need to start drawing the focusers now, last parts... Probably Helix-type, but guided by ball bearings instead of threads.

Mirror-o-Matic 14 Manual.PDF Mirror-o-Matic parts list 12 April 2007.pdf

Needed to redraw it all, in the past I ordered sec/thir. mirrors a bit to small....🥴 So I ordered two new -larger- mirror sets. Meaning I now have a spare mirrorset to make me another binoscope in the futur...😝 Due to Brexit didn't know what to expect, so this I ordered a new mirror-sets in Germany instead of OO. Sorry guys...🥴 Started printing the first parts today.

Oops.. this should work.

Finished and ready to be used.

If they can't do it, nobody can...😄

A gunpowder fuelled chair...?????🤭🤣

Fun...?? That is an understatement James...😃 Well, about the first men on the moon. I always thought Tintin was the first. he actually 'landed' on the moon. If I'm not mistaken all other have crashlanded on the Moon. Even Jules Verne did not land on it. Just read the book(not completely). He launched his rocket using a 300m long canon. To return to the Earth he needed a second canon stationed on the Moon. Imo there's zero chance there was the same canon waiting there to do the job...🤭

Done...! One more to finish.

Only the landing-feet needs to be done to finish this one.

Had some spare time to work on this one.

Total height of Falcon + Fairing is about 1.2m. I can replace the fairing with a Trunk/CrewDragon unit. The cutaway is there to show visitors at our observatory what's 'under the hood'.