On 11 Jan 2005 07:57:54 -0800, "Michelle Stone"
wrote:

James,

Yes, purple was the right color for this scope! It looks very nice.

Thanks Michelle, and the camera doesn't do the purple color justice!
The purple is actually a translucent candy, over a chrome base coat.
So in real life it has a much more 'apparent' depth. (BTW, I LOVE
powder coating, it is by far the most forgiving method of adding color
to something that I've ever come across. (normal spray paint and I
usually don't get along!)

Here's a link to the powder coat oven I recently finished:

http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/..._Coat/Oven.htm

That was no small task to weld all those parts together! Congrats on a
very nice job.

Again, thank you, I received a new Tig Welder as an early Christmas
present, and now EVERYTHING looks like it should be fabricated from
aluminum

What did you use for a mirror cell and mirror?

The mirror cell is just a simple three point arrangement, and the
Zeodor optic was ground and figured by myself and some friends at the
'03 Orange Blossom Star Party as part of a demonstration.

Here's my interferometry test results on the optic:

http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Inter/Fri...ter_axis_1.gif

Of course being a true die hard ATM, I coated the optic myself in the
home built vacuum chamber, seen he

http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/...ng/page_01.htm


And the biggest
question of all is... how does it perform for you and your dad?

Other than one small flaw that I need to fix, it is one heck of a
double star splitter / planetary scope!

When Dad will let me pry the scope out of his fingers, I need to add
some additional support to where the Alt bearings attach to the OTA.
As-Is they are currently attached only to the 1/4" thick birch plywood
filler panels. This results in a failure of the "Bump Test" at high
powers due to prolonged oscillations from having the thin birch
plywood as the only support point. I think adding an internal plate
that spans the alt attach point and attaches to the aluminum framing
members will solve this one..


Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge