From: "Bob May" 
To: "atmlist" 
Reply-To: "Bob May" 


The 5" tube will work but I think that a 6" tube will be easier
to baffle nicely - you are going to put baffles in it, aren't you? The work
is all going to be custom lathe work so either get your lathe working of
find somebody that does have one.  Getting a one-off item will be expensive
if you go to a commercial shop.  For the focuser, I suggest that you do a
large tube of maybe 3" ID and of the Crayford design with plenty of
travel in so that you can put a nice complex set of optical stuff on the
scope.  A set of stepdown rings will allow the various sized eyepieces and
cameras to be used without problems, especially of vignetting. The mount
sounds like an old equatorial head mount and it was intended to be mounted
to something for a base, a concrete pier to a wood tripod with a matching
interface will work fine.  The OTA was intended to be strapped on the V
mounting interface and the whole assy. balanced at that time. For a drive
corrector, I've got an article on converting one of the 12V power inverters
to use as a drive corrector.  The article has already been revised a little
from one individual trying to get his convertor working and those problems
answered in the article. Bob May
http://nav.to/bobmay
bobmay{at}nethere.com
NEW! http://bobmay.astronomy.net

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