ahmedsaad

Hello, I want to share an experiment done on a reflector. It wasn't successful but the details might be interesting for people in this group. I made a f/5 Newtonian with a 6" spherical primary in 2017. Last year during the opposition of Jupiter and Saturn I noticed it doesn't give sharp views on high powers. Upon reading I learned it's probably spherical aberration. I also learned how SCT and MKT make use of corrector plates to reduce spherical aberration. Making a corrector plate like SCT or MKT was difficult so I thought of a cheaper and easier idea. I don't know if anyone else has tried it before. Check the pictures. There is an acrylic disk 3mm thick, with a hole in the center and a bolt passing through it. Bolt itself goes through a spider like structure. Edge of the disk rests upon a ledge made from the same PVC pipe as the scope's body. Finally there is a nut in the bolt in disk's center and the whole structure is attached to the mouth of the telescope. Acrylic disk has no curvature by default, but when the nut in its center is tightened, pressure induces curve in it because the edge of the disk can't move in the direction of nut's force, as the ledge is fixed on which it is placed. Last night I was able to test it amid shifting clouds. Without this new structure in the light path, Jupiter looked glorious with four moons at 31x and 75x. But when I slid it in place, the view got distorted. I checked with and without producing curves in the disk, and keeping disk at various distances from the primary. So the experiment failed. But hopefully I will receive helpful comments from the pros to learn more about telescope making. Thanks