Member Craig Jones Modifies Homemade Dob

After using my home-built Dobsonian telescope for more than 3 years and
having time to observe the designs and craftsmanship of other amateur
astronomer's scopes, I decided it was time to rebuild mine. Some of the
issues I hope to address are:

* Craftsmanship not good enough
* Balance is not great
* Motion is not very smooth
* Focuser is not the best
* Does not break down well for transport

The first step was to think and sketch and diagram. I actually spent an
inordinate amount of time doing this and it has paid off well so far.
Most of my design ideas went directly from paper to wood with little
adaptation.

The first thing to do was to rebuild the secondary mirror holder and
spider, which I completed toward the end of September. The first weekend
in October saw me building the secondary cage. My new KineOptics HC-2
focuser arrived during the following week, allowing me to finish up the
secondary cage. Over the next few weekends I finished the mirror box,
reusing the butter cookie tin from my current scope as the primary
mirror container. After nearly three weeks of other duties I was able to
get back to it, but only to build a lid for the primary mirror box.

The next steps are to cut, finish and mount the altitude bearings,
determine how long the struts should be, and cut and finish them, and
build and finish the rocker box. Hopefully I'll be able to get it out
into the field in the Spring - in time to finish up the last few objects
on the Messier list.

Check http://www.webjones.net for ramblings and photos.

Craig Jones
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www.webjones.net