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Jeff Morgan
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/28/03
Loc: Prescott, AZ
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: JimMo]
#5670395 - 02/09/13 09:47 AM
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Wow. Nice job Jeff. Can you give some vital stats? Weight? Mirror size?
Cheers,
I can dig out all the weights and distances Monday or Tuesday (trying to get out the door to the airport as I type!), but here are the component basics:
- 16" f/7 Zambuto primary;
- Aurora Precision cell;
- Moonlight connectors, tubes to be foam-filled (pending warmer weather and focus testing);
- Wood construction is balsa honeycomb with 1/16" aircraft grade Finnish Birch skin;
- ServoCAT drive system;
- Moonlight focuser with filter slide. The slide resides outside of the flockboard light shield so as not to add obstruction to the light path (easy to do with a long skinny light cone); and
- Protostar 2.6" quartz diagonal and 4 vane spider.
The scope was originally going to be a 12.5" f/9 to replace a 12.5" f/6. In talking with Carl Zambuto he suggested given the money involved, I really should move up in aperture too. I always felt that galaxies was the one type of target I really needed more of, and going to 16" would give me just the right bump.
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turtle86
Pooh-Bah Everywhere Else
Reged: 10/09/06
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: Jeff Morgan]
#5670407 - 02/09/13 09:53 AM
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Beautiful scope--a planet killer and galaxy killer all in one.
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The Planetman
sage
Reged: 01/27/06
Loc: Western KY
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: turtle86]
#5670420 - 02/09/13 10:04 AM Attachment (24 downloads)
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I have a Galaxy (Jerry Wilkinson) 18" f/5.5 - 99.8" FL. Absolutely stunning images.....
This 18" that Carl is offering would make someone an absolutely killer scope!
I love the image scale. Globular clusters are mind blowing!!
Planetary? You just have to see it to believe it.....
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CHASLX200
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/29/07
Loc: Tampa area Florida
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: The Planetman]
#5670620 - 02/09/13 12:09 PM
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I have a Galaxy (Jerry Wilkinson) 18" f/5.5 - 99.8" FL. Absolutely stunning images.....
This 18" that Carl is offering would make someone an absolutely killer scope!
I love the image scale. Globular clusters are mind blowing!!
Planetary? You just have to see it to believe it.....
I would love to have that Dob for high power planet work.
Chas
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Jeff Morgan
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/28/03
Loc: Prescott, AZ
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: JimMo]
#5691319 - 02/20/13 04:49 PM Attachment (13 downloads)
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Wow. Nice job Jeff. Can you give some vital stats? Weight? Mirror size?
Cheers,
Thanks. Life has been complicated lately and it took a while to pull the numbers together. Looking back at the original plans, I hit my numbers reasonably well. Attached is a .jpg with most of the vitals.
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JimMo
I'd Rather Do It Myself
Reged: 01/08/07
Loc: Under the SE Michigan lightdom...
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: Jeff Morgan]
#5691379 - 02/20/13 05:30 PM
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Thanks Jeff. She sure is a beauty. I was just admiring it in another thread. Cheers!
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jpcannavo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/21/05
Loc: Long Island New York
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: Jeff Morgan]
#5692311 - 02/21/13 07:53 AM
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Jeff
Did you say 16" at F7! And I thought I was slow! Wonder if a 2.1" secondary would have still been adequate? I guess a paracorr will never be straining your budget! Nice work!
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Jeff Morgan
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/28/03
Loc: Prescott, AZ
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Re: Zambuto Mirrors
[Re: jpcannavo]
#5693318 - 02/21/13 06:44 PM
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Jeff
Did you say 16" at F7! And I thought I was slow! Wonder if a 2.1" secondary would have still been adequate? I guess a paracorr will never be straining your budget! Nice work!
Always trade-offs. I thought a bit about the 2.14", and at first I wanted to make it work. But there were a couple of factors to consider:
1) A 2.6" already gets me below the commonly accepted obstruction threshold of 20%;
2) I wanted to take the hassle-factor out of filter use by doing the slide. Using a larger diagonal to push the focal plane further out (easy to do with that skinny light cone) and allows me mount the slide well outside of the incoming light instead of becoming a huge obstruction; and
3) At 2800 mm focal length, I wanted to fully feed an eyepiece for maximum true field. Even with my 31 Nagler I'll only be getting about 0.8 degrees! Going with the 2.14" diagonal would have been pushing it in terms of illumination (a downside of that skinny light cone).
One of the things on my mind has been the AstroSytems diagonal holder. I may order another spider and holder to swap out for evaluation and it would present the opportunity to try a 2.14 diagonal.
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