12.5" F/6 Cave Refigure/Dob Mount for UIAS
This scope belongs to UIAS, and has a fiberglass tube. It was
mounted
on an equatorial mount that was nearly impossible to get out the door
and
which was in need of serious maintenance. So, in the interest of
getting
people to use it, I rebuilt it into a huge Dob. It still requires
two
people to carry it, but at least we can get it out the door!
The mirror had a decent figure, but the surface was quite rough and
bumpy.
I spend a few weeks refiguring it to a very smooth, more accurate
parabola.
Here are some focault images of the mirror BEFORE refiguring, as
finished
by Cave:
<- A severe case of dog biscuit! Oh yeah, and it has
some TDE (no diffraction ring)!
The mount features a tube box that clamps the tube. Wooden
friction
blocks are pushed down by turning knobs on the top of the tube box,
holding
the tube securely. The box then sits on the massive mount.
Also,
we got a new focuser, a JMI NGF-1 with extra travel, and I made a
spacer block
to attach it to the scope. The old focuser was very long, and we
couldn't
move the mirror cell or spider easily.
Finally the mount is finished, and the scope is ready for observing
It's
a wonderful planetary scope.
