From: "Dwight K. Elvey" 
To: atm{at}shore.net
Reply-To: "Dwight K. Elvey" 


>From: DWilliams1128{at}aol.com
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>What kind of epoxy should I use to glue washers down for a washer tool?  I
have a gearbox and electric motor that I'm using to push the mirror back
and forth over the tool.

Hi
 A washer tool is great but it has to have the right curve
first. The mirror will go to the shape of the washer tool. Most any epoxy
will work. I recommend that you use a tile tool to generate the curve and
then if you want, make a washer tool, using the mirror as a mold.
 On your machine, you need to make sure that it rotates the
tool and mirror.

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>I have made a 6" reflector telescope Newtonian before, but I only used a
PVC tube that someone gave me and bought the primary and secondary and
eyepiece holder from Edmund Scientific, but put it all together myself.  
It
worked good for a starting telescope.   And then in the summer of this year
my mom bought me a Meade LX200 10" GPS telescope.  Also I have a CCD
camera from SBIG the ST-237 A camera and I wondered if anyone else has
problems getting it to work together.   Also I am working on making a
20" Newtonian
Reflector telescope and I'll probably mount it as a Dobsonian at first. But
right now I'm still rough grinding on my mirror with #80 grit.  I'm making
it to about F5.  And I bought the plate glass mirror blank (porthole
glass), the tool and abrasives from a man named Mel Tolbert who lives in
Smyrna Georgia.   Does anyone else know him?
>
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>I'm having trouble hooking my ST 237 A CCD camera to my Meade LX200 10"
GPS.  I have a 200 mhz computer that has the software on it (CCDOPS and
CCDSHARP).  Do I need the program CCDSoft?  I think you need that program
if you do color photography.   Can you change the shutter wheel to a color
filter wheel?  I was using CCDOPS and had the telescope pointing at Vega
and then I got a Peak value of about 32,000 something, but the image on the
screen was a white round circle.  I heard that you could use a piece of
opaque cardboard with two holes in it over the front of the telescope to
use as a focusing aid.   I love you Chami.

 Nothing fancy here. Three holes works well. You can even make
a circle and cut some pie wedges from the edge. You don't even have to be
exact on these. It works a little better if the holes are triangle shaped.
This produces nice diffraction spikes that are good for fine focus.
 Another method is to take 4 rods and place them in pairs,
perpendicular to each other, with the pairs about 3 inches apart.
 With the holes, you just mach up the dots and then diffraction
spikes. With the rods, you match up the diffraction spikes. Dwight


>
>David Williams
>dwilliams1128{at}aol.com
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--- BBBS/NT v4.00 MP