Here's some pictures of Elvira, the scope I describe as a love child of NASA and Tesla. She's part Mars rover part exotic sportscar.
This is the FIRST telescope he's ever made! It's seems as if he has literally thought of everything. The attention to the tiniest detail is superb. It's not only innovative, but every detail has been thought through. As an example, please note the mirror cover in the photo. It's not just simply a cover, the large knob on top twists, locking the cover in place, but that's not all! The cover is also vented. When you twist the locking knob, it also opens or closes vents in the cover allowing fan driven, filtered air to be blown from the back of the mirror, through special baffles, around a specially curved part of the mirror box, that directs the air around the mirror's edge, and across it's face. Since the air blows across the mirror face from many directions, the flow meets in the center and turns upward to exit the vent. This pre-cools the mirror without removing the cover, and the design also disrupts the boundary layer at the mirror's surface when observing.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any photos of the scope free from its docking and transport cart. Yes, the red, U-shaped wheeled base doesn't stay in place after the scope is set-up, it's only for charging and transport. (NOTE: The safety wheely wheels on the base he says the cart can really move and these provide additional safety when going up a ramp) When it's time to observe, there's three small hydraulic jacks in the telescope base that lift it up off the cart, at which time the cart is driven away from the scope, the jacks are then used to level the base. The only physical lifting involved, is inserting the carbon fiber truss tubes in their sockets, placing the thin rotating case base on the truss tubes, and attaching the secondary cage. The mirror is stored in the scope even during transport in a ramped cargo trailer, cushioned by the transport cart's soft rubber tires against shocks. No heavy lifting is involved unless servicing of the drive components hidden in the base is required. Sounds like the perfect large scope for us "older" astronomers or others with lifting limitations.
As for the question of collimation, it can be done remotely from the eyepiece using a small push button keypad which can be seen above the focuser in the photos.
This scope not only is driven in push-to mode as described above, it also can be run in go-to mode wirelessly from a tablet. In either case, it is running in a closed loop feedback system to the tablet running Sky Safari software via encoders.
For me, the innovation I enjoyed the most, was the handle on the upper cage that could be used for push-to operation. Because the scope's axis are locked in drive mode, it doesn't make any difference what eyepiece you put in the focuser. NO rebalancing is required! You must learn a proper technique for pushing the scope to a new location because as mentioned above, when you close your fingers around the handle, they break an infrared beam which then unlocks the clutches releasing the drive. If you have a heavy eyepiece in the focuser, this can send the scope slipping downward. My first trick for preventing this was to place one hand on the top of the cage as you would when using a dob, then taking my other hand to grasp the handle. A very soft click tells you the clutches have released and light upward pressure stops the scope from dropping in altitude. After a while with the scope I even up doing it one handed using only the handle. I found myself cupping the handle with slight upward pressure before closing my fingers around it, breaking the beam on the backside. It sounds like something you have to think about, but I assure you, within a short time it becomes very natural and transparent. I loved that innovation! I had asked what kind of sensor he used to detect your hand, speculating it was capacitive touch sensor. He replied he had tried that at first and found it didn't work with gloves, so he switched to a simple ir led emitter and photo eye on the mount of the handle. Regarding the clutches themselves, he moves them with linear actuators that only draw power for about 3/10ths of a second when moving the clutch disks, not continuously like solenoids would to save power. Everything is run off internal lithium-ion batteries in the scope's base which are good for three nights observing, and these are charged from the transport base without wires when the scope is "docked" in the base.
There's so many more things I could say about this scope, but it would take pages talking about the details and innovations that I know of because there are so many. Believe me when I say, he's thought of everything down to the smallest of details! Yet, for all it's complexity in design, the scope was as easy to use as any simple dobsonian or go-to scope. WOW!
Thanks for the report.
