Home > My 10" telescope

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I purchased two 10 inch diameter, and thickness 19 mm. glass and 15 mm. tools in 2004 June for my deep-sky observations. I started grinding it in the same month itself at a local amateur telescope making association, ABAA in Bangalore, but due to some problems had to discontinue it for a year and half approximately. Now I've continued it again and the grinding is over.

I initially wanted to make it anywhere between f/5 and f/6.5, a short focal length instrument which is good for deep-sky observations. Also being a 10 inch, it was better to go for a short instrument which will make it weigh less making it easy for transport and carrying it around here and there. I am very comfortable with Dobsonians and prefer them more than anything else. So I want to make this one an open-tube truss design as well as a simple dobsonian. Finally I've dug out a curvature (sagitta) of around 2.7 mm. in the glass making it around f/5.3. That makes the total height of the telescope around only 5 feet or so.

I've prepared the pitch lap on the tool for polishing and done around 20 hours of polishing. Having some problems with the tar in the pitch lap, I've re-prepared it around 3 times and having the tool deformed again I'll be re-pouring the tar for the 4th time.

I've now finished my entire telescope, my first one and will post the entire story soon.

PHOTO GALLERY:

http://s85.photobucket.com/albums/k77/amar_universe/astronomy/First telescope/