| The orginal telescope tube was a Sonotube covered with carbonfiber cloth. It was eventually replaced with this 18" carbonfiber tube. Also seen is a QSI 683wsg CCD camera with a Lodestar 2x guider. The rings are by Parallax. The 16" mirror was made at an annual ATM workshop in Bellingham, WA. The "spherical blank" was furnished by Zambuto Optical Company. The workshop was overseen by Mel Bartels as we applied the final figure. My mirror was eventually "touched up" by Steve Swayze. A Baader MPCC provides enough coma correction for the KAF-8300 sized camera chip. |
