A tale of a small telescope.

Chris Knight wrote:

I can remember going to Mt. Kobau in the early '90's On of the founding
members of the star party...Peter something-or-other (his last name escapes
me), had a debilitating disease, such that, like you, he could not stand at
the eyepiece. I think it was ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Anyways, he built
a scope in such a manner, that no matter where it was pointed, he could look
through an eyepiece mounted on the altitude axis. I know there is a name
for this type of scope, but that too, escapes me. Perhaps this may help
you, if other members of this group can help me out with the details.

There are a couple of equatorial variants that have a fixed eyepiece
position or nearly so. The Springfield mounting has the eyepiece
absolutely fixed except that it rotates around the optical axis (see ATM
book I for details).

Chuck
--
... The times have been,
That, when the brains were out,
the man would die. ... Macbeth
Chuck Simmons

Peter was a staple at every Mount Kobau Star Party from its inception until
he passed away from ALS in 1996. The scope he built was a modified
Dobsonian with "Wheelchair access". He was friendly and outgoing, and had a
joke on his lips for everybody. I'll ignore your childishly snide comments
and chock them up to you having one too many stale beers.

Chris


"Ratboy99" wrote in message
...
So, um, he's going to build a goto chair with a stationary eyepiece and a
C5
and take it out camping?

Sheesh!

I'm sticking with the 90mm suggestion, the one he already bought. Chuck,
It's
great to see that you got back into the hobby.
rat
~( );

email: remove 'et' from .com(et) in above email address

Chris Knight wrote:

Peter was a staple at every Mount Kobau Star Party from its inception until
he passed away from ALS in 1996. The scope he built was a modified
Dobsonian with "Wheelchair access". He was friendly and outgoing, and had a
joke on his lips for everybody. I'll ignore your childishly snide comments
and chock them up to you having one too many stale beers.

Chris

"Ratboy99" wrote in message
...
So, um, he's going to build a goto chair with a stationary eyepiece and a
C5
and take it out camping?

Sheesh!

I'm sticking with the 90mm suggestion, the one he already bought. Chuck,
It's
great to see that you got back into the hobby.
rat
~( );

email: remove 'et' from .com(et) in above email address

His point was well taken. The only thing I intend to build for this
telescope is a better than supplied clock drive as mentioned in the
thread on clock drives. (I will use a high quality instrumentation
permanent magnet DC motor. I will build the tiny amount of electronics
and a friend will make a bracket and coupler. I obviously can't do any
significant construction or machining).

Chuck
--
... The times have been,
That, when the brains were out,
the man would die. ... Macbeth
Chuck Simmons

Bill Meyers wrote:

Hello, Chuck,
You do indeed seem to be coping very well with a difficult problem. I hope
things will improve for you.
You obviously know a lot more about telescopes than I do, so I will refrain
from suggestions about scopes, but I wonder if you have considered using
SkyWindow, which I find to be a wonderful binocular mount that is made to be used
from a seated position; it has a stationary eyepiece position like that of a
microscope. It will handle binoculars up to 20x. I can be used table top or on a
tripod. For transport It folds very compactly, almost like a book.
Cordially,
Bill Meyers

My taste runs more to telescope objects and even though the 90mm is
short of light gathering power, it is satisfactory all things
considered.

Saturday night I was able to see how well I had the whole thing
organized. Set up was extremely easy. Since the sky was not to be dark,
I decided the moon and Mars would do and positioned the telescope in
front of my chair facing moon rise. Polar alignment was rough and ready
by compass an guess. My friend was impressed with the moon at about
100X. Atmospheric turbulence made 100X a little ambitious. Mars
eventually came up. By that time, the battery in the clock drive had
died. 9 volt batteries are useless for anything more than microamps. I
will be looking for a 12 hour solution and later, when I change to my
own design, probably use the car battery. Tear down was less than five
minutes all the way to getting the thing stowed in the truck. We did not
stay up very late because I am recovering from some therapy that has
left me a bit tired.

Our camping spot was at about 9,000 feet. There were only two other
campers within a mile of our position and they were not using lights.
The place will be a good risk for dark time in September. In dark time,
I will probably set up in the larger of the two nearby meadows.

Chuck
--
... The times have been,
That, when the brains were out,
the man would die. ... Macbeth
Chuck Simmons