ERIC MOERMAN’S 12.5” FORK MOUNTED NEWTONIAN
If
you would like to contact Eric Moerman about this awesome mount,
please email him at:
ericmoerman@telenet.be
Back
in July of 2006, I was nearing completion of my 10" wooden Fork
Mounted Newtonian Reflector. Wanting to get the word out about my
greatest astronomical achievement, I decided to go to Cloud
Night's Telescope Reviews in hopes of notifying the astronomical
community of my accomplishment. Upon accessing the Cloudy Night's
website I initially performed a search on the site for other
ATM'ers who may be working on a similar project. After a short
amount of time I ran across a forum started by Art Bianconi - a
well-versed and knowledgeable amateur telescope maker who was
undertaken a couple of awesome fork mount projects. With
excitement, I quickly became a member of Cloudy Night's,
introduced myself, and the Fork Mount project I was working on. I
posted a photo of my completed mount and received appreciative
responses, as well as gaining valuable insight from Art in several
areas of telescope making. Art Bianconi is no doubt an excellent
resource in amateur telescope making.
Then,
I decided to search again for any other Fork Mount builders and
ran across a forum opened by a gentleman from Belgium by the name
of Eric Moerman, whom also begun a forum covering his all metal
Fork Mount construction project. I was very impressed with the
precision, design, and innovation Eric instilled in his Fork
Mount, as he provided his step-by-step chronology of it on Cloudy
Night's. I quickly introduced myself and my fork mount in his
forum and vowed to follow the construction of his scope until
completion. We shared several threads and noted some similarities
in our mount designs despite mine being built from wood and his of
metal. Eric Moerman is a Machinist in Belgium who demonstrates a
solid understanding of telescope design and function. I liked his
design so much that I asked him if I could host some of the
pictures he took during the construction of his telescope on our
website. Eric gave me the okay. I believe these photos will be an
asset to all ATM'ers interested in building an all metal based
Fork Mount as an alternative to my wooden model. In either case,
both of these telescope projects would serve any ATM enthusiast
quite well.
