STAR began in 1999, when 2 guys with a pair of 10X50 binoculars looked at orion and jupiter using an old camera tripod and some duct tape. Shortly after that, and thanks to eBay, we began upgrading from the binoculars to small refractors and reflectors. Each upgrade gave us a little more magnification, and a little more detail. But we were still not satisfied. We wanted More power.
In the spring of 2005, thanks to a generous donation from Uncle Sam (my tax return) and good timeing, I found the perfect mirror on Astromart.com. It is a 12" f10 mirror that had been used as a refrence mirror in an opticle shop. It came with a cast iron mount making the mirror and mount about 55lbs. This would be the basis for a great scope.
I decided to build it in the Durascope fasion, using a large lined piece of drain tubing. I started with the base, I saw a simillar mount on the internet and thought it would be great for this scope. With out any plans or drawings, I started by cutting the main wheel (horse shoe), and proceeded to build a base for it. The only tools I had to work with were a skill saw, jig saw, and a drill. The main wheel is 44" in diamiter, but will be increased to 54" inorder to maintain a proper center of gravity.
After building the base and wheel, I needed some heavy duty bearings. I turned to my friendly used autoparts (bone yard) dealer for bearings. What I came out with were 3 frontwheel drive wheel bearing hubs. I figured that if they can support a car, they should be able to hold up a telescope. Now I was ready to start assembling my big 12 inch.
I obtained a piece of drain tubing from Hughes supply. This is very durable stuff. Made of plastic, it is easy to work with. In order to get the ballance as close to the primary mirror as possible, I used pressure treated 2X10s to build a box to mount the mirror bracket. I used 1/4 X 20 bolts to connect the mirror box to the tube. At this point I was just about ready to start assembling the scope.
Now I needed a spider, secondary, and focuser. I decided that a scope such as this should have the best possible parts available. I decided to use a curved vien spider. The focuser was a more difficult decision, as there are so many to chose from. After comparing apples to oranges to watermellons, I finally decided on a MoonLite Dual Rate Crayford Focuser (Model CR2). This is the end all of focusers. See the specs here. I was so impressed, I decided to keep the entire color sceem of the scope the same as the focuser.
Now I had everything needed to assemble the scope. I quickly discovered that this scope was a lot heavier than originally predicted. The center of gravity was no where close to what was required. When it was finnally assembled, it required more than 100 lbs of counter weight, and a pair of VW cylinder heads to get it close to ballanced. Not very pretty or practicle.
At this point I was a little bummed but not discouraged. I had seen truss tube scopes all over the net but at this point I was also looking to avoid the ladder. I had also seen designs for folded newtonions. I decided to mix and match technologies. I ordered a Jaggers 4.25" flat from surplusshed.com and started folding. This was working out great. It moved the focuser from 11'6" down to 5'.(good bye ladder) I decided to make the top half as lite as possible, so I used the truss tube method. Good old HomeDepot had just what I needed, shower curtain rods. Very light, very stiff, and your choice of colors. I put these new parts together and was very happy with the results.
I mounted the new OTA on the base and found the center of gravity was much closer to center. By making a folder newt, I lost a little of the 12" appature, but it was a good trade off. I now had a scope I could use while standing on the ground.
Now it was time to start adding bells and whistles. I started with tracking controls. for the RA, I used the screw and worm gear from a damaged GEM3. I obtained a stepper controller from surplusshed.com and a drive belt from the local sewing machine center.
Now that I was tracking, I needed a finder scope. I used a honeywell B/W CCTV camera and a lense from a set of binoculars. Housed a a couple of pieces of PVC tubing, and a few bolts, and presto, one finderscope.
The next thing I needed was a dec controller. I used a piece of lexan and a snall gearhead DC motor for this.
Now I had a working remotely operated 12" f10 telescope.
Be sure to check back thru the summer of 2006 as I make improvements to the main wheel, base, and secondary spider. I also plan to use the Steve Chambers mod on a Logitech quick cam pro 4000. Plans are also in the works for a geodesic dome. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact me here. I'm always looking for new ideas.