Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Beginning: The New Telescope!

Well, I am finally starting to work on my new telescope with the 18" diameter mirror.  The mirror was delivered six months ago, and has been waiting for me to start building the scope.  This is Alex, and he and his brother Larry own a fence company (as in "Good fences make good neighbors" - Robert Frost)  Anyhow, today I went by their shop, and Alex was kind enough to cut some steel tubing and bar stock to length for me.  Now I will make a wood jig to hold the pieces, which then need to be welded.  This is the beginning of the mirror support, the first step in many needed to build the telescope.   Stay tuned...

4 comments:

Amy said...

Wow, cool! I thought that was YOU at first (it does look like you...not to mention it looks like something you'd be doing!)

Anonymous said...

Can't you just go to a planetarium like normal people? Repeat after me: "RENAISSANCE MEN ARE OCD, RENAISSANCE MEN ARE OCD, RENAISSANCE MEN ARE OCD."

Cool picture, though.

Ken Spencer said...

Now all I need to do it to learn TIG welding, to put my pieces of steel together. I know how to do gas welding (oxy-acetylene) but I need TIG or MIG to put these pieces together without warping them.

Anonymous said...

TIG welding. You already know gas welding. Spencer, one day your head is going to explode with all the new information you shove into your brain! Renaissance man. Marathon man. You're not human.