These are two of the telescopes that I have built. The white one has a 6" mirror, and the larger telescope has a 10" mirror. I made the 6" mirror, but not the 10" one. When observing at night, the air temperature keeps dropping, and eventually dew forms all over the telescopes. Eventually parts of the optical system including the secondary mirror and the eyepieces dew over, and then I have to use a little 12 volt hair dryer to warm things up just a bit, to chase the dew away. When I put the telescopes away in the car at the end of the night, they are usually soaking wet. So this morning when I got up, I set up the telescopes in the sunlight in the driveway, to dry them out. Watching them sit there, I decided to photograph them
What does the 10" weigh? It looks so large to transport around.
ReplyDeleteJoan
It comes apart in several ways. The straight up and down box on the bottom weighs perhaps 25 pounds. The tilted box with the semi-circular bearings weighs perhaps the same. It is a box with 8 aluminum tubes (which are covered with the black cloth) connecting to the two plywood rings at the top. That whole things lifts out and weighs perhaps 30 pounds as well. That main telescope "tube" covered in black cloth comes apart, into a top and a bottom and the aluminum tubes get disconnected, and the whole thing fits in my trunk, with room for baggage.
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