I've been studying this and your other scope pages very closely for a while. Thanks for taking the trouble to do them, and do them so well! Last night I observed the Spouse Object (o i am gonna get killed for that) saying that I could play with any tax refund money, so I hope to be able to fund a mirror soon and build myself one of these beautiful scopes (assuming i don't get killed to death).
I'm curious if the middle ring serves any other particular purpose besides acting as a washer between the two strut sets. Do you anticipate that repeated compression at this joint may eventually result in some loss of rigidity?
Though I have been many times, I am still jealous of you heading for Oz. Have an excellent trip!!
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From: sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam on behalf of Albert
Sent: Fri 3/18/2005 5:19 PM
To: TAC
Subject: [TAC] 13" f/4.5 travel scope for upcoming trip to OZ
In two weeks, Bob Jardine, David Kingsley, and I are heading to Australia
for a dedicated observing vacation. Here is the scope I will be taking.
http://ultralightscopes.com/MarkIVtravel.htm
The scope saw "first light" at Plettstone this past weekend. I was very
pleased with its performance. I'm making a couple of minor adjustments to
insure it makes the journey without damage.
I observed from New Zealand almost exactly a year ago. I didn't prepare well
enough and didn't see as much as I would have liked. I'll be more prepared
this year, taking Uranometria South, M. Morel's "LMC Visual Atlas 2000", M.
Paul's "Southern Galaxy Trios", and some "Eye Candy" lists.
Albert