Parabooze...

[Chriske]

Hi,

This little scope is about 30 to 40 years old. Out of the bottom of a Gin bottle I grinded a 100mm (square) f/4(about) curve.
Back then we had lots of laughs when I showed this little scope during our open door. Especially when we had a little sip of water from that bottle. It was btw not a good idea we thought to leave the original content and drink that.
The original content was in fact not really Gin but Bokma, a Dutch Gin equivalent. And no, we did not waste the Gin but drank it afterwards when open door at our observatory was finished...🤪

Anyway, back then I made the 'tube' out of wood and called the little gimmick 'Parabooze'.
Owning a few printers these days I'll replace the wood with printed parts, it'll be a complete overhaul.
There's one little problem while using this little scope. Optically it is ok.  But while slowly emptying the bottle the central point of gravity of the telescope does shift towards the top...  so I need to find a solution for that ....🤔

Collimating the primary mirror was done by bending the steel wires at the neck of the bottle. Going to replace it with a more professional solution of course.

Back then the operator of the aluminium-coater asked me whether this was a joke or not when I asked him to aluminize and coat the bottom of my bottle. The man really thought I had a few 'loose screws' or drank to much of that liqueur...

Cheers..!

[markse68]

Haha that’s brilliant Chriske 🤣

[lenscap]

A work of  Ginius. 😃

[Swoop1]

Why am i thinking of the Norman Greenbaum song Spirit in the sky?

[Chriske]

To be clear on this one, I have no problem whatsoever with my rather moderate alcohol consumption. as a matter of fact I don't even like Gin or any other strong drinks...🥴

[Chriske]

Well, this is how I rebuild this little scope. Much nicer then the old one. It has more elegance with these printed parts imo...

I added a few items :
-It has a Helix focuser running 6 ball bearings.
-The dispenser is an improvement imo...😉
-The 'primary mirror' has a very smooth collimation system.
-The only thing to do is adding a light shield opposite the eyepiece.
-and yes, I need to glue a new 'Bokma' label at one side of the 'telescope'.

-Problem is... I don't like Bokma at all. But I suppose I could fill it up with something else, like Martini...?

After silvering I had a quick peek through it (after 30+ years) and I must say I was very pleased with the quality of this little 'scope'

This little scope has a square mirror and also a square secondary, so now the million dollar question :
Will I see square diffraction patterns...???...🔷

😄

Edited August 30, 2023 by Chriske

[Mandy D]

@Chriske I fell about on the floor laughing as I read your story about this ingenious telescope. I can just imagine the look on the man's face when you asked to have your gin bottle bottom aluminized! I have to say that I love the concept and I think the finished product has a certain beauty. Maybe, you have started a trend. So, how does it perform optically?

[Chriske]

26 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

@Chriske I fell about on the floor laughing as I read your story about this ingenious telescope. I can just imagine the look on the man's face when you asked to have your gin bottle bottom aluminized! I have to say that I love the concept and I think the finished product has a certain beauty. Maybe, you have started a trend. So, how does it perform optically?

Well, as a matter of fact when my friend, who loves Bokma gin, saw my little scope for the first time he started grinning and a few days later he gave me another set of (empty)Bokma bottles.
He said, I know you like to build bino's, so make me one please... Needles to say ...I'm tempted...very...😄

[Chriske]

33 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

@Chriske I fell about on the floor laughing as I read your story about this ingenious telescope. I can just imagine the look on the man's face when you asked to have your gin bottle bottom aluminized! I have to say that I love the concept and I think the finished product has a certain beauty. Maybe, you have started a trend. So, how does it perform optically?

 

[Chriske]

Optically it performs rather good, as a matter of fact I was a bit surprised.
To be clear it is not a optical masterpeace, I made 'a few' better mirrors in my lifetime.
Visitors at our open door will not see the difference between a perfect 'bottle' and mine...😉

Problem during polishing and figuring a square @ f/4 (about) there's no ideal way of polishing a square mirror on a circular lap. Or is it...?...😄

[Chriske]

Done and ready to use it in two ways...

This position is to observe..

 

and this is the 'other' position...😀