Testing

Ah yes...just clearing the cobwebs from a deserted blog....I really ought to get this up and running again.

Some changes will be made to this blog soon.

Another pic of the telescope

My telescope

I thought I would post a couple of pics of my telescope setup. Attached is the 30mm Paul Rini RKE eyepiece I am using until I get my 24mm Panoptic.

The scope is a Synta 80mm f/5 refractor but I have made a number of modifications to it. The focus knobs are aluminium and bought from Focusknobs.com; I have replaced the finderscope with a Rigel Quikfinder which is attached to the scope using an adapter from Scopestuff.com. I also improved the scope with Bob Berta's tune-up tips for the 80mm f/5 which can be found at the 80f5 Yahoogroup.

This is a sweet little telescope for satellite observing and I would recommend it to anyone. Since I bought it, there has been an explosion of high-quality ED and APO scopes with short focal lengths from Orion, William Optics and others. At the time I bought this it was the only scope of its type available that I could afford. I have been making mods to it from time to time since then.

Pictures of the testing rig

Telescope Project Part 6

I've polished the mirror and I am now in the process of testing and figuring it. Here is a sketch of the mirror under Foucault testing:

More on telescope

Close up for Chris.

Telescope Project - Part 5

After a long layoff from this project due to work commitments, I have begun again.


Here is a picture of my mirror. There is a polished ring but also a milky ring around the edge and a centre spot.

Telescope Project - Part 4

The main grinding work is complete on the mirror. I will now need to polish the mirror. There is a small scratch on the surface which looks to be from a piece of tile falling off the tool; fortunately I was working with the mirror on top so it is not terminal. Here are some pics of the tool and the mirror.