Ad Astra Observatory

I got a small amount of ATM time this weekend. It was enough to round off the edges of some of the wood pieces that I need to handle, make a much-needed trip to the hardware store for stainless steel bolts and screws, and finally to mount the focuser board, focuser, and secondary mirror to complete the upper tube assembly, and to mount the primary mirror cell and the primary mirror to complete the mirror box assembly.
I’m ready to piece it together to test focal length and roughly balance the rig, then I can cut the tubes, put together the mounting plate assembly and I’m done!

I’m amazed at how this project looked like a random pile of parts while I slaved away at it, and then all of a sudden, it turns into a telescope. Stupid thing is *big*. I eagerly look forward to first light.

I have been taking photos of the scope as it’s been going together. I’ll post them soon. Honestly, if I had all the parts and hardware on-hand, I could probably build another one of these in less than a week. It’s a
very simple design. I just have to see if I can execute it properly. So far, so good, but I haven’t yet tried to collimate it. (: