Telescope Reviews: Post a picture of your mount!! (Part 2)

What are the dimensions of your OB. I was thinking of around 16x16. Long enough to house the 13" of refractor, tall enough to cover it with room to spare, and wide enough to allow free movement to view all aspects of the night sky.

Rob:

Been there, done that and you're on the right track. I found for a big scope, like the one you're planning, I needed to design and build the observatory around the completed and balanced instrument in its "parked" position instead of erecting the building and then trying to stuff the instrument inside. Knowing the instruments installed configuration how much room behind the eyepiece you'll need and how it's parked when not in use will give you the minimum outside envelope around the instrument.

This, of course, means you need to carefully design the instrument first. For example, I wanted to have the eyepiece no less than 2.5' off the ground when pointed at zenith for a 10" F16.6 instrument. Howe-v-e-r, if I put the instrument balance point midway along the tube, that would have forced the mount to be perched almost 10' above the floor. Then with the scope parked horizontal on its side, the slope of the roof and it's lower truss members had to clear the instrument with a generous amount of room. Well, when I did the math and sketches, I would have needed to use 10' 2 x 4's instead of the standard 8' for the walls. That lead me to bias the design of tube forward by 16" so I could lower the top of the mount. That, of couse, dictated how high to make the concrete footer for the steel pier as well as the pinch point of the dew shield from the north wall....And so on.

When all the shouting, chair throwing, broken pencil tips and paper wadding had passed and settled, it turned out that 16' x 16' on the INSIDE could accommodate the instrument, with enough room to swing the scope around, roll the roof off without clobbering the finders and still use 8' studs for the walls. A lot of fun actually and with the 8" F12, I've a ton of room. I'm currently plotting and scheming (along with the usual "ing's"....begging, groveling, sniveling and pleading....with the S.O

as well) for a 10" F15.

Jeff

Where you gonna get your 10"f/15 objective?

Also...in a similar fashion as the hydraulic pier for my 6"f/15...I was planning on making my own elevating pier for the 10"f/16...instead of hydraulics I was planning on using cables, and a 2.5 ton winch system. Similar to those used on SUV's.

That way I can keep the pier relatively short, and just lift it up to the desired elevation for Zenal viewing.

Rob

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