VI. Completed Project

6.1 Finished 22" Telescope

The completed telescope if I can use that word since no telescope is ever completed, Figure 6.1.1. The project took place over some 20 years. The actual construction time was on the order of 800 hours for the mounting and 450 hours for the optics, total time of construction about 1250 hours. Many people helped planning the telescope. Most of the telescope was built by me with help on occasion form Bill, Ken, and Kevin. I did all of the welding at Bill's shop and most of the machining and casting at CSU, Chico as a part of my Special Major, with encouragement from Ray and Leonard.

Figure 6.1.1. The completed 22" telescope. The declination drive disk and RA drive disks are visible in this view.

 One of the advantages of building your own telescope, aside from the pleasure of building it, is that of cost. One can build a telescope that is as good as or better than any commercial telescope. The cost of building the telescope including the drives and computer control was about $4000.00.

Statistics

    Weight 1500 lbs.

Optics

    22" Primary Mirror Hayward C3 Low Expansion Glass

    Newtonian f4.3 94" focal length

    Cassegrain f12 264" focal length (proposed)

    Daws Limit Resolution 0.2 arcseconds

    Limiting Magnitude 16.4

    Image Scale at Prime Focus 86 arcseconds/millimeter

Optical Tube

    Modified Serrurier Truss

Mounting

    English Fork with Modified Polar Axis

Drive System

    Celestron CompuStar Controller

    RA 720:1 Disk Drive

    Dec 432:1 Disk Drive

    Two 1.80 1.25 volt DC SloSyn Motors, Microstepping
 

 
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