While I am really excited to see what the new telescopes capabilities will be (the focal length of the primary mirror is not that much longer than the one in my 76mm scope so most of the benefit will be in extra light gathering capability) I am almost more excited about the construction project. Given that this will be a summer project I will be away from the University and its many CAM machines. On the one hand this is good as it means I can use materials that would catch fire in a laser cutter, but it also means that all manufacturing will need to be done by hand!
Counter-intuitively, this lack of laser cutter makes the design step even more important - because correcting mistakes is going to be a pain! Therefore, armed with some idea sketches and optical dimensions I threw together an Inventor assembly to try and get the dimensions right, and usable.
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| The profile shot, I have a couple of objects for scale (all disabled at the moment lol). They showed that the telescope is going to be very usable, except it may need to be on a table if looking at object near the horizon! |
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| More of a beauty shot, down the optical tube |
The CAD work has been a bit of a learning exercise, playing around with texturing and movable joints, as well as how to best use the assembly system. The standout awesomeness was the fact that my Crayford Focusser design could be imported and tried around on the model to make sure it fitted!
Anyway, I am sure that there will be plenty more to talk about/take pictures of soon!
Anyway, I am sure that there will be plenty more to talk about/take pictures of soon!
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