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 The telescope mounted on a Gemini G41 mount |
This is my first completely
homemade telescope! The optics were grounded and polished with my
friends Filippo Riccio and Paola Battaglia, and we're proud of the
result! It took nearly 6 years from start to first light, maibe too
much... but we've decided to take our time and get the maximum result. Optical testing shows that the primary mirror has a maximum peak to valley error of about 1/10 lambda, that is a maximum error of less than 30 nanometers on the optical surface (equal to about 250 atoms!). The tube assembly is a double truss structure, that can be dismounted so that the whole telescope is collapsed to a box of about 25x25x46 cm, excluding trusses. The focal length is 1260 mm, very good to be used as an astrograph. I've obtained very good images with a Baader coma corrector and my Canon EOS 5D (24x36 mm sensor), producing point stars all over the field, with only a minor vignetting due to the 2" focuser, easily solvable with a flat field. |
Detail of the primary mirror
Detail of the secondary cage
Together with a Pentax 75 refractor
