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6" f/10 refractor build.

argonaut

By argonaut
in DIY Astronomer

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argonaut

argonaut

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That is a very beautiful job so far argonaut, I hope you're suitably proud of it, shown the pics to my wife and she said she never thought a telescope could look 'sexy' but that one does! Well done. I'm only up the road at the top end of Oldham. I have a very good friend who owns an engineering company, they work mostly in stainless so if you need anything of that sort gimme a shout.

My wife says I can keep it in the front room because it looks a little Art-Deco. Wait till she see's the next one :eek:

I know it's not the best place for a scope,but I'm not going to argue with her:)

I am pleased with it so far. Just got to do more testing trying different things out. I need to reduce the CA.

That is useful to know about the SS. I never liked working with it when I was a engineer. I did the drawings and had the parts made at a local jobbing shop.MT Tech here in Newhey. Mark did a fine job for me.Then I was brutal with the Solvol Autosol.

You can always pop over for a look,the kettle is always on :evil6:

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argonaut

argonaut

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Unbelievable. Ignorant and a little bit racist too. Thankfully SGL has higher standards.

Argonaut: I would pay it no mind. If you ever want to sell that scope I can collect it from Rochdale no problem :eek:.

Well,they have cleaned the thread up a little now. To be honest it's put me off posting on any forum after what was said last night.

Shameful.

The scope:You can look,but don't touch :evil6:

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argonaut

argonaut

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Hi Tophouse,

I've probably run over your foot with a trolley:)

I used to go to school at Royton on Highbarn Street. Now that is a long time ago. There used to be a RAF cadet place behind the school with a spitfire parked outside. They took it away to be used in the Battle of Britain film. Another piece of useless information :eek:

Beamish,

It wasn't pretty. There is still a couple of posts in there I don't like. It seems they had quite a few complaints about it. I should think so to.

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TopHouse

TopHouse

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I don't remember the Spitfire, that's before my time lol, but i do remember the restaurant that was in an old decommisioned longman coach. If the spit had been in my time I'd have been there every day drooling over it! I originally come from the other side of oldham, recently moved here, just before moving i was landlord of the Top House pub in Springhead for 10 years or so, but as a kid i used to go fishing at the Wickenhall lakes on a regular basis and was in the Rochdale observer once with a huge carp from there. And now we've gone right off the topic of your beautiful scope.

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argonaut

argonaut

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Yeh,the old railway coach on Oldham Road. Never ate there myself.

I still fish Wickenhall when the dodgy back allows. Just up the road from me.I have heard that they didn't manage to clear all the carp out when it was netted a while ago.

Well,back to the scope,with assistant(better half) out of comission at the moment and this Rubbish weather it's going to be a few days before more tests. Istar are working on CA correctors at the moment. I just might be tempted.

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argonaut

argonaut

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You can quickly check the alignment of the focuser to the objective by placing a circular paper mask with a central spot over the objective and use a "collimated" (!!) laser collimator in the focuser.

If everything lines up, the beam should be smack on the central dot; if not, slightly tilt the focuser to correct.

EDIT: The tilt of the objective can be checked just using a cheshire eyepiece and a bright light... the reflections from the various lens surfaces should appear as concentric circles. Drop me a PM if you want more detail.

Ken

Hi Ken,

I've been thinking about this and can you or anyone else recommend a Cheshire and laser?

I did have a kind offer from Tophouse to borrow his laser but i'm going to be DIYing a couple of refactors in the future and may as well buy one of each for future use. Also,if I go over to the 'dark side' and look at a Skywatcher Auto they would come in handy.

I have not had the chance to do anymore testing since I bought a Baader prism diagonal and Baader semi-apo filter. The better halfs elbow surgery is healing nicely :headbang: So it shouldn't be too long now.

Clear Skies.

Glen.

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Glen,

Any cheshire will do they're all the same...

With your obvious abilities, I'd make my own laser collimator.

I used a 1.25" x 25mm extension tube drilled and tapped six M3 holes and used M3 bolts to hold a laser penlight torch inside.

By rotating the tube you'll quickly see the out of alignment and it takes 10 mins or so working the front and back set of screws to get it spot one. When you're finished you'll have an accurate laser collimator which will beat the pants of any commercial unit!

Ken

post-15261-133877430426_thumb.jpg

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Certainly helped me a lot when building the spectroscopes; trying to align the various elements, prisms, objectives, gratings and CCD's would have been impossible without it.

Note the thick cover of aluminium foil ( from my tablet strip - much thicker than cooking foil) over the nosepiece... this is pierced with a very ( like VERY!) small central hole..to reduce the spread of the laser beam.

Ken

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rcwinter

rcwinter

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Hi Agronaut

Very Nicely done, I made a 4" long refractor last summer from a very special lens I aquired, it is at f22.5 so a bit of a monster too.. I have attached a couple of images, hopefully they made it to the site, I had to design and make my lens cell as I only aquired the glass element

Cheers

Richard

post-16418-133877430739_thumb.jpg

post-16418-133877430749_thumb.jpg

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rcwinter

rcwinter

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Hi Glen

CA,, no as the scope is designed for monochromatic light, being H-Alpha Solar specific, the lens is the only one made by a master optician called David Sinden, he intended to make three but died befor he completed the second. it is in fact an ERF of Shott Glass Ground to be the main objective @ f22.5 as a Singlet Plano Convex lens.

Cracking views.

Cheers

Richard

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argonaut

argonaut

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That explains the coatings. I wasn't sure if it was a reflection off the curtains that made it look that colour. It is very special indeed.

A few questions if that's ok.

Tube material.

Tube paint.

Eyepieces used.

Mount used.

Just being nosey. I absorb answers like a sponge :headbang:

Clear day time skies.

Glen.

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rcwinter

rcwinter

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Hi Glen

I used a 5" Extruded Alloy tube with a 3mm wall, no flexure at all in the tube it self,, the Paint job was done by the local BMW Garage as a PJ in the paint shop, so it BMW white with the heat treatment etc, the Focuser is a large format Moolite 2.5" , I have it mounted on an EQ6 Pro with Modified Meade Giant field Tripod from a 14" SCT, I use Meade SWA eyepieces 40mm being my Favourite,, I have been the Nagler route and prefer the SWA's & QX's,, just my choice.

Like I said earlier I had the scope out today and have attached a couple of images, really windy today so imaging was out.

Cheers

Richard

post-16418-1338774310_thumb.jpg

post-16418-133877431009_thumb.jpg

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argonaut

argonaut

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Thanks for the information Richard.

The scope looks really good set up on it's mount. A credit to you.

I switched from Nagler to WO UWAN's for my widefield viewing. I found that I was suffering with 'kidney beaning' with the Naglers.

Glen.

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rcwinter

rcwinter

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Hi Glen

Many thanks for chance to join in the session, I love your scope ( I toyed on buffing up the alloy and sealing it but chickened out) I expect like me you had great fun creating it and even more fun showing it off, mine will be at Kellimg this summer and I hope that anyone looking through it will enjoy the views as much as I do, I am sure yours has the wow factor, as it looks like a creation from the heart.

Hopefully if you attend on of the star parties I may get to have a look through yours

Cheers

Richard

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