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- Top ring
Concept (February 5, 2001)
Often when going to the remote campsite I wish I had big enough automobile I could take along the telescope. Telescope big enough so I could really enjoy the night.
The other concern is that remote sites are not always suitable for observing.
That would mean I would have to take a walk with the telescope to a good spot – an open patch far away from campfires and the lights.
Finally I would like to be able setup the telescope and do not worry about collimation.
Above notes set the parameters for the dream scope.
- Aperture should be minimum 12.5″.
- The telescope in the folded form should be the manageable – in the form of some kind of backpack.
- The whole assembly including eyepieces, laptop, and other gadgets should weight no more than 45 lb, so I could hike with it – for lets say a mile.
- Precise setup – after long research I have concluded that only ‘strings scope’ is precise enough. Other plus of this construction is the fact that is has little loose parts and setup time is quick.
During my research, I have found many interesting WEB sites. Many of them contain very good information. Many of them are just not detailed enough to draw any ideas.
I have listed the ones that I found useful in the links section below. There is only handful of them because I do not want to spend much time on maintaining the links.
As time progresses and I will start work on the construction of my dream scope, I will post here photos, and updates to the plans.
The detailed plans are not finished yet. I have stumbled over the problem of attaching the altitude bearings to the mirror cage.
In addition, I need to make mass analysis. I do not want to cover for rushed design with heavy counterweights.
I am using AutoCAD 2000 – my favorite CAD program – for developing the drawings.
It is very powerful, but as other CAD programs it calculates center of gravity allowing only uniform mass.
So after resolving all details I need to produce separate drawing in which solids are scaled proportionally to their mass.
The other problem is how to publish the plans. Not everyone has and knows how to use AutoCAD. The raster images are not good enough, because too much detail would be lost. However, I am sure that the idea will come soon.
As for materials, most of the construction would be composite fiber-carbon and Kevlar.
The mirror should be about 1″ thick, so it would weight under 13 lb.
For now, you can enjoy the images of my (not finished) dream scope that were prepared with 3D Studio Max, my favorite modeling program.
The scope is high in the clouds above ground, because it is a dream for now 
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The blue sphere above mirror is to be able to see where the mirror is.
