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SAO 10” NEWTONIAN OTA FINISHING AND ASSEMBLY |
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in 1984-85, my colleague Gary decided to embark on a new telescope
project that would provide adequate light gathering power and
portability as compared to our meager 60mm refractors and other
instruments we had. So he sent a down payment on a mirror set comprised of a
annealed Pyrex® 10" f/5.6 primary and 2.14" secondary with
Coulter Optical Company. Coulter Optical Company (based in Idyllwild, CA
at the time) offered great deals on customer-made 1/8 wave (or better)
primary and diagonal mirror sets. With Gary's encouragement, in February
of 1986, I took the plunge and placed an order for the same set, with an
initial down payment of $50.45. there was a 4 to 6 month waiting period.
I started hashing out some ideas for the mount and chose to build a Fork
Mount. Then, in August of 1986, I received a letter from Coulter stating
that my mirror set was nearing completion. I finally scraped up and paid
the remaining $93.00 and received the optics in November of 1986. Upon
receipt of the set, I opening the box to look at the mirrors once. Then,
I repacked them well and placed the box in a safe place until I was
ready to build my scope.
Unfortunately, at the time I received my optics, I did not have a place to build the beast. A wooden Fork Mount was going to be the way to go. I was living in a modest apartment and had limited tools to work with. So, the mirror set was stored away for 15 years. Then in 2001 I rekindled my aspirations in building this Fork Mounted telescope. Finding the precious time, planning, designing, and getting the funds took another 3 years. Never testing the optics over all those years really made me apprehensive about how they were going to perform. Nonetheless, I was steadfast in constructing the telescope and now I had a garage to work on the project. It was definitely a long term project taking over 2 years to complete once construction started in May, 2004 - utilizing what little free time and trickling funds I had. All the while I worried whether the optics were any good. I had put so much time and effort into the construction of the supporting components not knowing fully well if the optics would work as specified. Well the time had finally come on May 1, 2005 when I installed the optics in the tube for the first time. On this day, my son Trevor took the privilege of performing First Light. Taking aim at the last quarter moon during daylight hours, I asked my son to take a look through the scope using an inexpensive 25mm Series 500 Plossl while holding the incomplete scope atop a Workmate type bench. He reported that the image looked fantastic despite looking at it in broad daylight! Then I placed my eye to the eyepiece and was graced with a sharp image easily discerning the craters in sharp detail. I could not wait to see how it would perform at night. But, it would be another eight months before I had done so, as I proceeded with completing the construction and finishing of the fork mount. Well, the end results proved very successful and I am eternally grateful.
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