Yeah,so I stole the title from a Blue Oyster Cult song,but this blog has to something about a telescope. In the late '7o's,my Dad and I built (well,I watched) a Newtonian telescope. Without the advise of noted local astronomer Bill Duvall this telescope would not be completed. The tube is 4feet long and was crafted on a lathe. Inside the tube was fitted with a dark cork. The mirror is 6 inches in diameter and was hand grounded down by my father.(I remember watching him spend hours doing this). The stand was molded at his work. The counter balances are set to a 45 degree angle to compensate for Racine's latitude.(I'm sure that hale-bopp could explain this a lot better I could). The sighter scope and eye lenses were ordered for. This telescope is powerful enough to see the rings of Saturn. It's a good mermory that I wanted to share.
Very cool drew. Do you still use it?
ReplyDeleteBill DuVall I wanted to link onto this page on the blog,but it didn't work. So, here it is.
ReplyDeleteNo kk,we don't use it much anymore,so it kinda sits in the storage barn Up North. It's kind of a hassle to carry it across the road and set it on the pier. (The telescope is heavy). There's not much light pollution on the lake,but the trees are an obstruction.
ReplyDeleteTelescopes are way cool and to build one...awesome.
ReplyDeleteI have only tried to build one telescope...no guidance...well, it left something to be desired!
ReplyDeleteYeah, you want a mount that will be aligned with Earth's polar axis. The advantage of this is you can track stars with only one motor (or manual drive) rather than two.
I am involved with the Galileoscope project, a low cost ($10) telescope with decent optics that is being made for the International Year of Astronomy. I will be blogging on that as it gets closer.
Thank you,everybody for your kind comments.
ReplyDeleteHale,if you were to use this telescope,say in Arizona,would you have to change the mount settings?(Due to the Earth's axis).
BTW,the focal point is 3'7".
I agree with SER: awesome. My dad was a machinist and he made some neat stuff, but we never did anything like this. How do you grind your own mirror? That telescope will become a great family heirloom to pass on.
ReplyDeleteOrbs-My father was a metallurgist technecian. A man of a few words-liked to build things. If I remember correctly,the process of grinding down the mirror was something like this.
ReplyDeleteThe telescope is one of many things that my father and I "worked" on together. I had the most fond memories making it.
Yeah, we are at about 32 degrees north down here. That mount would not give a proper polar alignment here.
ReplyDeleteSo that would be about an f/7...good focal ration for a Newtonian telescope.