Arie's Dobsonian Telescopes

Contents

Home
(voor een Nederlandse versie, klik hier)


 The Ingredients
 Secondary cage and trusses
 Mirror box and Mirror cell
 Side wheels and Rocker box
 Argo Navis
 ServoCAT


 The Telescopes
 12 inch
 20 inch
 16 inch
 8 inch


 Binoscope
 Mirror cells
 Tunable top
 Miscollimation to merge images
 Optics and performance
 The WOW factor


 Other enabling companies


 Links

Email to: Arie Otte

Side wheels
I use no ‘half’-side bearings anymore, but ‘full circle’ side wheels. I like the look of them. But, they are also very practical. They are very easy to grip and carry the mirror box around. And achieving easy handling of any large portion of the telescope was one of the objectives! The wheels are larger than the already large side bearings I previously used. This has the advantage that it balances the telescope better and allows a large range of eyepiece weights. Furthermore, the large wheels create a virtual, high balance point for the telescope. This means that the top of the shallow, heavy mirror box sits 15-20 cm below the center of the wheels, which is the natural balance point of the telescope. This again, allows a very low profile rocker box, as can be seen in case of the 16-inch telescope.

Rocker box
One goal of this 'telescope making' was to create a system with three large components, all easy to assemble/ disassemble and easy to carry. I succeeded best in achieving that goal with the 16-inch and the revised 20-inch telescope. The mirror box is shallow and in combination with the large side wheel, this allowed a very low profile rocker box (25 cm at the highest point in case of the 16-inch, only 20 cm high in case of the revised 20-inch telescope). Since the rocker box has such low profile, relatively thin wood (maximum 18 cm multiplex) could be used for the sides.

I keep the telescopes as ‘clean’ looking as possible. So most of the electric wiring, the ServoCAT computer, the two 12 Volt batteries that run the ServoCAT and the Argo Navis systems, all reside in the depths of the rocker box.

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