The Finished Scope

It was a huge rush to the finish. So there was a great sense of relief when "Version 1.0" of my MiataScope was successfully unveiled at Astrofest in September 2002. There were some rough edges to be smoothed out, but it still worked far better than I dared hope.

The first sigh of relief came when the telescope successfully fit in the trunk of the Miata. This picture shows how it fits. The cage goes on the left. The mirror cell is inside the rocker box on the right. On top of both go the side bearings. The mirror cell / rocker box combo needs to be slid over to the left near the cage so that the right trunk hinge will clear.

My MiataScope is designed so that the telescope and a passenger can go observe for the evening and still ride (more or less) in comfort. Every cubic inch is used of course. My eyepiece cases fits behind the front seats. The truss tubes go up front next to the passenger. When more room is needed, I went to Moss Motors and purchased "shelf luggage" which is a bag that straps onto the trunk.

For overnight trips though, the Miata just isn't big enough for the telescope, a passenger and camping gear. For the three days of Astrofest, I put two sleeping bags and two air mattresses in the shelf luggage. That meant that the two pillows, all my eyepieces, the truss tubes, clothes, tent and some food had to fit in the passenger seat.

The second big sigh of relief was doing the first full assembly and seeing that everything worked. Here are two pictures of the completed scope assembled and ready for collimation at Astrofest. You can't tell from these pictures, but there was glue and varnish drying as I took these shots.

Over two nights of observing I noticed that the collimation does drift a little. I think that this was due to the mirror cell grabbing the mirror too tightly though. Further testing of the scope is needed to make sure that what's happening has nothing to do with a flaw in the scopes design (others agree that this seems unlikely). Even with the drift, the scope stays well collimated in use. Astrofest was the first time any of my scopes has been perfectly collimated and now I see what an amazing difference it makes to resolution and image quality.

On a series of two very damp nights, there were no problems with dew on the primary or secondary. This was a surprise as I did not have a mirror shroud and I disconnected the secondary heater before the evening started during collimation and forgot to restart it. By Astrofest 2003 I had added a shroud in part to protect the mirror in case something gets knocked off the secondary cage while the scope is in use. The Velcro holding things to the secondary cage worked well, but it isn't fool proof and twice I knocked things off when reaching for something else.

Listing these problems reminds me that I should highlight what went right too. There were many things, and a lot of thanks are due.

• The images are rock steady. This is the first scope I have ever owned where I could hold on to the scope and not have the image shake. Since my hands normally tend to shake a bit, this is quite remarkable. Needless to say, I never noticed a "settling" period after moving the scope.
• The scope moves easily and stays put after being moved. One of the judges at Astrofest even commented afterwards that it had the best feel to its movement of all the scopes he had seen in the competition.
• The scope is stiff and strong. I can move the scope by grabbing any part on the top end and pushing or pulling as needed. There are no weak or wobbly spots to avoid touching.
• The focuser is a dream and it received many complements over the weekend.
• The optics worked very well. Kudos to Swazy on a wonderful mirror.
• The scope sets up quickly and easily. One person can do it without assistance in less than 15 min. I spent more time setting up my tent.
• The scope is light and easy to lift. I need to weigh it and report on how light it is. My guess though is that it is less than 50 pounds.
• The big collimation knobs inside the mirror cell worked well. There was plenty of travel. The knobs were also easy to find and use.
• Having the truss tubes in the passenger compartment did not seem to be any problem for my fidgety nephew when were driving home.
• The scope is rather bottom heavy. Looks like under normal use, around 1 - 2 lbs of counter weight will be needed on the secondary end. I am very happy about this as it means that I can add heavy things to the secondary cage in the future without worrying about balance issues.
• Having an open truss instead of a solid tube allowed me to reach inside the cage, up the focuser from the bottom to adjust my moon filter. The filter is from Orion and works by having two rotating polarizing filters. Most convenient.
• I loved my Telrad, so it pains me to say that the Rigel finder was not only much lighter, but also better. I love the blink feature in particular.
• I bought my previous two telescopes. As I result, I tended to treat them almost like sacred relics, not to be sawed on, drilled through or permanently changed in any way. Since I built this telescope I am not afraid of breaking it. If it breaks, I know how to fix it. In fact, the repair would probably be even better than the part that broke. Not that there has been any problems with anything breaking after a year of use.

The final triumph of Astrofest was winning an award for the telescope's design. Some dream of winning an Oscar. Ever since the first Astrofest almost 25 years ago, I've dreamed of winning an award for telescope making. Needless to say, I couldn't be more proud.

Even after Astrofest was over, there have been further moments of pride. I love hearing other amateurs look at the scope and guess that it must only be a 14", 12" or even a 10" scope. It continues to receive compliments from them on how it performs. One of the best moments though was seeing my grandfather look through it. The photo shows (left to right) my nephew and long time Astrofest buddy, Jim along with my grandfather and I.

The fun has only begun.

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Last updated 1/12/06