Specification:
Optics:
- 18” f4.5
- Feathertouch Focuser with integrated Paracor, (SIPS)
Physical:
- Total Weight; about 30kg
- Size; will fit in the boot of my car, (except truss poles!)
- Max eyepiece height; 2.1 metres
- Truss poles; 20mm Al tubes covered in black heat shrink.
ScopeDog mk3eF drive ...
- Geared stepper motors driving through toothed belts
- 40000 tick encoders
- Nexus DSC for scope position readout SkySafari for telescope control
- Integrated plate-solving digital finder (eFinder)
This scope has been a 10 year journey, striving to reach ultimate performance in a size and weight that can be transported in my car.
Squeezing everything into my new Mustang was getting tedious, so a rebuild was undertaken to make the scope more compact when being transported, and a bit stiffer in winds.
The Altitude drive is now via rollers on both trunnions. This gives superb motion control.
The ScopeDog drive has been redesigned using a Raspberry Pi5 and newer stepper drivers - and its a 1/4 of the size!
The electro-magnetic clutch shown here isn't really necessary - a simple slip clutch suffices.
Recently I’ve integrated a digital finder scope, an ‘eFinder’. This is described here. It automatically improves GoTo accuracy to less than 1 arc minute with respect to real sky RA & Dec.
Finally (?!) a change to harmonic strain gearboxes (~zero backlash) and use of my 3d printer allowed a rebuild of the base. Not only does it look neat, but the drives are super responsive now.
A gallery of photos of the telescope is presented here for those looking for inspiration!