Ad Astra Observatory

A,

You gotta love seesaws. My 27# of mirror and mounting plates sitting 8”

behind the top of the mirror box is not enough weight to balance the 6#
of spider and focuser sitting 50” in front of the top of the mirror box.
So the balance point is going to be somewhere in between the two. This
poses a challenge, since I need to figure out how to mount the G-11
plates. I was hoping to put them within the boundary of the “mirror
box”, but I would need some counterweight to make that happen I think. I
may be able to tweak things a little with the camera at one end and the

guidescope/finder, etc at the other. But I’d love to be able to get the
OTA to balance without all that.

I think this is why Kreige builds Dobs with huge steel frames in the bottom.

In any case, I have the plywood “rings” cut for the OTA, and I have all
the parts except the spider ready to be assembled. And, without mounting
plates or photo rig, the OTA looks like it’s going to weigh ~25lb, perfect!

I’ll pass along some photos as I progress. I have some shots of the
plywood being cut etc. but I haven’t sorted through them yet.

J