Telescopes
My interest in Astronomy began at a very young age. Growing up in the country, I was always mesmerized by the night sky and often laid out watching meteor showers in the warm summer months. Like many budding astronomers, I purchased a cheap mass-produced kid scope hoping to explore the universe. Well, as thousands before me have found out, the views through the scope look nothing like the pictures on the box! And trying to locate M-57 with the inferior mount proved to be a heavy dose of frustration. There went my aspirations.
Fast forward 25 years, my interest is renewed in a big way when I visit a public Astronomy Event hosted by The Erie County Mobile Observers Group (ECMOG). There I was blown away by the telescopes I saw, a Meade 12" and the "big scope", the 24" homemade Dobsonian. My mind was racing and the whole evening was a blur. Lines were too long at the big scope so I went back to the 12" and watched Jupiter and the four Galilean Moons for at least an hour straight. I was hooked!
And so began my emergence into the world of telescope making. I settled on a starter size telescope of 10" as this would jump in fairly deep, and in addition to observing the Moon and the Planets (back then there were nine) it would allow some decent Deep Sky Object (DSO) hunting! So, armed with a headful of research I ordered my first mirror, the 10" f/6 from University Optics and set about constructing the rest of the telescope. Obsession Telescope founder Dave Kreige put out a marvelous book on telescope construction, detailing every step of the way how he builds his telescopes, and although the book is aimed at 18 to 30 inch telescope construction, I was able to scale the dimensions down to accomodate a "small" 10" mirror.
I finished the 10" telescope on Leap Day 2000, used it for about three months and tackled most of the Messier List of eye candy in the sky before I started yearning for more. "Aperture Fever" had set in and I was determined to have a larger scope to explore even deeper and make the things I could see in the 10" even more amazing. Well, as luck would have it, during this time the ECMOG president and new friend Tom Whiting was looking to sell his 18" mirror, since he had recently finished construction of the 24" telescope, the same one I saw at the public event that re-ignited my interest in Astronomy and led me to this point anyway. Needless to say I was very interested in this mirror. With the experience of building the 10", I had ideas for improving the design and simplifying setup. The mirror was a very high quality Galaxy Optics mirror, 18" f/4.5 x 2" thick. The goal was lightweight, which drove most of the design changes; ie. opting for six trusses instead of the standard eight trusses, no shielding on the upper cage, and the most significant change, an all aluminum mirror box. This scope saw first light on June 8, 2002 and my first target was M-13! The impressive sight just about knocked me off the ladder!
After seeing the recently completed 18" telescope and having a serious case of "aperture fever" himself, Tom inquired about the construction of a replacement for his (yawn) 24". And so began 'Mitchell Telescopes'. Not a bad way to start off, the construction of a 30" f/4.5 monster scope!
This is a serious telescope, and one must have no fear of ladders! It is 11' 5" to the eyepiece when pointed at zenith. But wow the views are stunning with obvious color in the Orion Nebula. I would love to retrofit this scope with a motorized base ala Mel Bartels' system.
So now by this time I'm growing more and more bored with "only" the 18" scope, after building the 30" scope, which I realize is way too big for me at this point, I am pondering my options. Then the most obvious answer smacks me in the face... Tom just upgraded from a 24" to a 30" and the 24" now needs a home ;^) So, a deal was struck and I acquired the 24" f/4 Nova Primary and secondary and set about designing a new scope for this beauty. So, here we are on the fourth scope, many things have worked wonderful, some small tweaks were needed here and there, but for the most part, the 24" ended up almost identical to the 30", just scaled down appropriately. All aluminum mirror box, eight trusses, fully baffled secondary cage.... although weight was a concern, it wasn't a primary concern as this scope was going to be wheelbarrrowed into my van as opposed to lifted into a trunk like the 18" scope was.
Here's my awesome 24" f/4 which I have to this day and am more than content with. Again, with this one I would love to retrofit with a motor drive system, mainly for tracking as part of the fun is hunting down the targets instead of punching a few buttons and automatically slewing to the target. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer to hunt down my prey.
I have installed DSC's on this scope, my first telescope not completely "manual". The Sky Commander works pretty good, usually landing me on the target. It sure comes in handy for public events when you're trying to squeeze in as many targets before everyone gets cold or tired and leaves. Just when we're getting started! Most of us go till the wee hours and on many occasions are packing up while the sun is rising. There isn't much that is better than a peacefulful night touring the skies with a 24" telescope (by Mitchell :^)
Coming soon: detailed construction of the 24" f/4 telescope!
