5 replies to this topic

[JonSnowden42]

Hello all! I am an NC Triangle resident who purchased an old Coulter Odyssey 13.1in (even got a drive to central Tennessee with it). Cleaned up the scope/mirrors and got it working great but it is quite hefty to lug around. Seen a lot of really cool truss dobs online but I am not very engineering minded. I was wondering if anybody had blueprints or plans for any previous builds they would not mind sharing. I can scale up the numbers as I know you don't see a lot of 13 inch mirrors these days. Also if anyone local has experience rebuilding or tips on where to get specialty parts locally I would love any and all advice! Relatively new to the hobby and dobs, but I have been fooling around with my Celestron 4se for a good while now. Thank you to any and all who take the time to help out and I look forward to being a part of this community!

 

I have the manual it came with too with all the specs. The performance guarantee makes me smile every time, they were confident in their quality back then!

Edited by JonSnowden42, 27 October 2020 - 03:09 PM.

[Kudeyar]

I'm a beginner myself, trying to implement my own DIY ultracompact scope. And what I already understood is that simple scaling is not a decision here. F ratio, for example, has a HUGE effect on the optical and mechanical design (such as balance and stiffness), especially in truss tubes (maybe collapsible less so, I don't know). So at least try to find as close a telescope to what you want to get as possible, if you want to proceed with this idea.

Edited by Kudeyar, 27 October 2020 - 03:57 PM.

[photoracer18]

As for the quality guarantee you have to take that with a grain of salt (the average user in those days did not have the tools to check on the figure). Even a mediocre set of mirrors will look pretty good up to medium powers as a light bucket. Its when you try high powers that a set of excellent optics will perform. As for the subject at hand there were a number of truss tube makers that created Dob kits for various GEM and solid tube Newtonians over the years. While none are currently in business companies like Sky Designs in Texas used to make truss tube kits for Coulter 17.5" Dobs and may have made a model for the smaller 13" one. NightSky made kits for sets of Meade 16" F4.5 optics from both their GEMS and Dob versions. If you can find one who has such a kit you might be able to get them to measure the parts for you. And I am sure there are oters out there that converted their own 13" scopes to truss tube also.

[cuzimthedad]

Moving to ATM

[Pinbout]

 

I was wondering if anybody had blueprints or plans for any previous builds

https://youtu.be/tlb_pfZRY8Q

 

what about parts already biscuit cut just glue... and finish. 

 

 

Edited by Pinbout, 28 October 2020 - 07:46 AM.

[brentknight]

I'd have to recommend DobStuff for something like this.  Dennis is currently rebuilding the base for my Orion XX14g.  I've seen on his website many 13.1" setups.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Dobstuff/