As many of you know, I recently lost my beloved wife Gelinda back on September 29th, 2010. Her untimely passing has truly devastated family and friends, and most of all me. I truly miss her dearly. In dedication to her support and understanding; let alone her unwavering love and devotion, I will be constructing the VSC/ SAO Jaegers 6" f/10 "Gelinda J. Dawson" Refractor in her honor. I love and miss her so very much...

With the aim of making this telescope my finest to date, I have commissioned Eric Moerman of Belgium to once again provide his metal fabricating skills in the construction of the collimation objective cell and focuser backplate. As some of you may recall, Eric also fabricated the clock drive for the VSC/ SAO Coulter 10" f/5.6 Gary Barabino Fork Mounted Newtonian. His eye for precision and attention to detail are well know by those who have seen and purchased his astronomical wares.

When I told Eric about my desire to build a telescope in my wife's honor, he offered his support to help me minimize the cost of this project. Unfortunately, when I devised my initial design diagrams to send to Eric, my measurements were off by approximately .5mm. Drats! This meant that I had send them back for Eric to have them resized. I truly felt awful. Nevertheless, Eric was quite gracious and resized the parts and had them back in my greedy hands in no time! Thank You , Eric!!!

Below are photos of the components ready for finishing. As much as I would love to have these beautifully crafted parts anodized, I am going with a less expensive method; hammered finish paint on the outside visible surfaces, and ultra-flat black paint on the light train surfaces. Despite going with the cheaper approach, I believe the components are still going to look great. Before I finish the parts, please check out the images of the unfinished components below.

 

The collimation lens cell components as they look from the front.	The collimation lens cell components as they look from the rear.
The collimation focuser backplate components as they look from the front.	The collimation focuser backplate components as they look from the rear.

...and the beat rolls on with the cutting and test fit of the Dew Shield for the VSC/SAC Jaegers 'Gelinda J. Dawson' 6" f/10 Refractor. The dew shield is  8" in diameter and 12.5" long. The wall thickness is .083". I also mated the dew shield and transition piece to the 7" outside diameter main tube to get a preliminary look at how the scope will look at the objective end. Check out the photos below.

The Dew Shield with the transition piece viewed from the front.

The Dew Shield with the transition piece viewed from the rear.

The Dew Shield transition piece and main tube test fit as viewed from the rear.

The Dew Shield transition piece and main tube test fit as viewed from the front.

In addition to Eric, I also utilized the great machining skills of Joe Kane to make a custom D-mount dovetail plate for the project. Some of you may know Joe from his eBay ad selling his finely crafted dovetail plates for Vixen and Losmandy EQ mounts. The dovetail plate was powder coated by Joe in the traditional "Vega Blue" to match the color of the tube once it is finished. I provided a couple of images of it below; top and bottom. Looks great! It is going to look sweet atop the Losmandy G-11!

Also, below check out the 'before and after' photos of the Cradle Rings sitting atop the dovetail plate. Each ring required a special adapter plate for attachment them to the plate. Initially, I was going to make the cradle rings myself, but I purchased this pair via eBay. Theyt were once used on an Optica B/C  6" Newtonian reflector. When I received them, they were truly showing their age. So, I sent them to Joe Kane for stripping and powder coating in black. Joe said he had a heck of a time sand blasting these rings cleans. But the end result turned out beautiful! I could not be more pleased. Thanks Joe!

 

Top view of the Dovetail Plate.	Bottom view of the Dovetail Plate.
Aged and Weathered Cradle Rings with adapters and Dovetail Plate..	Powder Coated Cradle Rings with adapters and Dovetail Plate..

*** UPDATE --- 05/18/2012 ***

I have completed flocking with flat black spray enamel to specific internal light path areas of the collimation lens cell and focuser backplate components as seen in the photo below. Once the flat black paint has cured and out-gassed completely, I will remove the tape from the areas I did not want flocked. Tape will then be added to the flocked areas to protect them and to sections I do not want any paint on. Next, hammered finish paint will be applied to the areas with not tape.

 

Left to Right: Crayford Focuser Support Collimation Ring, Focuser Backplate, Len Cell Support Transition Ring, Lens Retainer Ring, and Objective/ Lens Cell.

As with all of my projects, I hope it will kindle the interest of other amateurs to take on the rewards of building their own telescopic instruments.

Please stay tune, there's more to come!!!

Questions? Email us at: vsc-astronomers@vega-sky-center.com