Dusted down the little'un

[geppetto]

Gaz's post about the Skywatcher 60's reminded me of my little homebrew 60mm

scope I made a couple of years back.

Its one of my usual square, MDF uglies but the lens is a quality 60mm F8.5

Cooke triplet that I got from Surplus Shed for about $15 if I remember correctly.

Its nicely coated and is mounted in a quality machined brass tube.

Picture below shows it mounted this morning on my EQ-5.

The gun sight finder was donated to me and the 1.25" focuser and diagonal

are cheapy plastic things again from Surplus Shed.

Hoping to get some imaging done with it now that I have gained a bit more experience

since last time the 60 came out of the shed.

To show how capable the lens is, I've

also posted a solar picture taken with the 60 and Toucam about 2 years ago

through a Baader solar film filter.

If the skies let me play, I'll post anything half decent that I catch with it

[FLO]

You're a resourceful sort aren't you

How easy is it to source lenses for projects such as this?

I am also curious to know about the wooden tripod on your EQ5 ... one of yours?

[geppetto]

Steve

Surplus Shed in the states is a goldmine of lenses and stuff.

Their stock changes regularly as they find more stuff and sometimes

little gems like this triplet turn up.

http://www.surplusshed.com/

I cheat a bit by using square tubes rather than round as they are easier to

make and they do the job after all.

The tripod is made from some lengths of timber from Wickes and the bolts and

bits came from B&Q. Much more stable than the original aluminium legs.

[GordonCopestake]

I can see the benefit of square tubes, i have no idea why manufacturers use cylinders really given the ease of manufacture of square tubes, packaging, stacking etc

[FLO]

Thanks Philip,

I'll keep an eye on them :cyclopsani: