Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
George's Telescope Finished
David DeCristoforo
By now, I'm sure that anyone and everyone who is a member of an online turning forum has had quite enough of my telescope project posts! But the scope is finished (after three years from the start) so I thought I might as well test everyone's patience by posting yet one more image of the finished telescope.
That's a BEAUTY.
GaryG in MD
What's the doohickey on top behind the finder scope?
Re: That's a BEAUTY.
David DeCristoforo
Telrad finder
http://www.company7.com/telrad/products/telrad.html
two finders
GaryG in MD
Cool. What's the tradeoff for which you use? First the Telrad and then the traditional one for fine tuning, if needed?
Re: two finders
David DeCristoforo
Don’t really know! What you said sounds as good as anything I can come up with so I’ll just go with that. My actual reason was that I thought I would be cool to have both. I like the teckie aspect of the Telrad but I wanted to include a traditional finder scope of my own making.
that's a good reason!
GaryG in MD
With all the different aspects and applications, there will probably be times when one or the other is preferred. Two is better than one.
finder scopes
John K Jordan
It is sometimes very difficult to find a specific thing in the sky with a conventional finder scope due to the magnification. The Telrad finder, at least those I'm familiar with, let you point the scope so the target object will be within the field of view of the finder scope. Then center in the finder scope and the object will be within the field of view of the telescope.
The Telrad is a step above mounting pointers on the scope and a big step above sighting down the scope barrel then hunting around with the scope. (My usual method!)
Many of today's scopes have motor drives and computer controls. Mine has a motor drive and once I set the scope to the proper angles and fine tune the position, the motor will keep the any steller object centered in the view. Some scopes today make this trivial - with a computer database you can just about set the scope anywhere, find a known star or two, and push a button. (I say "today" but my experience is kind of ancient - I might be amazed at what is out there now!)
JKJ
Re: George's Telescope Finished
AZ in Colorado Springs
We'll, that's really cool. This is the first I'd seen on your project. We'll done!
yep
GaryG in MD
I bought an Orion Star Seeker II some years ago (nominally computer controlled) and spent the bulk of a couple evenings in frustration trying to get it to work. That model is why they came out with the Star Seeker III. :-(
After several go arounds with the mfr, I sent the whole thing back for a full refund and haven't tried again. I wanted it for my home in the DC suburbs where the sky light is so bad I often can't find anything dimmer than second magnitude in the summer skies. Things are much better in the Winter, but my old bones (actually it's my beta-blocked low heart rate) make it increasingly unpleasant to go out at our around 0ºC. I have an Orion 130ST manual job that works pretty well (if you know what to aim it at, and where it is) at my daughter's house in PA where the skies are better. I need to get it out and use it more this Spring as things warm up.
Re: George's Telescope Finished
Don Orr
That's AMAZING!!!
GaryG - solar filter?
John K Jordan
Do you have a solar filter? With it you can expand your watching to warmer times. There are solar prominences and sunspots that are always changing and the rare crossing of a planet. At eclipse time the scope/filter combo really shines (pun intended!)
I set up a couple of my scopes at the John Lucas estate for the recent solar eclipse.
I used the cardboard box in the back to shade a projection of the sun from a smaller scope - no solar filter needed. I've set this up at schools so kids could see the eclipse while waiting in line to look through the eyepiece of the bigger scope.
The view through the solar filter is great. I didn't set up a camera to view through the telescope so this picture is by holding my cell phone up to the eyepiece.
If you don't have a solar filter and want to get one, be sure it is a good one! I don't trust anything but a high quality glass filter. Mine is coated with multiple layers of metals which makes it look like a mirror.
JKJ
Re: George's Telescope Finished
John K Jordan
David, I've been following this scope build since your first posts. It's great to see the final result! Fantastic.
Feel free to post more photos. 
This is worth taking it to someone to get some good studio shots.
JKJ
that's fun, john
GaryG in MD
I did a pinhole camera in a large box for the local kids.
Sunspots are cool, but I'm more into deep-space stuff (to the extent of what I can do with 130 mm of aperture). ...GG
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Re: George's Telescope Finished
David DeCristoforo
Well, there might be a few more pictures of some small modifications I’m making before I send it off.
I also have a pdf documenting the whole project if you want to see it.
Re: George's Telescope Finished
John K Jordan
>>>I also have a pdf documenting the whole project if you want to see it.
Well I would certainly like to see it. It might make a great magazine article.
JKJ
Re: George's Telescope Finished
David DeCristoforo
Here's a link to the PDF file. This was created by Bob Roach from Woodturners Unlimited before they went to a Facebook site. It encompasses the entire three year period of construction and is the most complete a documentation of the telescope project.