Ad Astra Observatory

The tubes are going to be aluminum, but because of my design, they have to be cut to exactly the correct length. So I decided to use some spare 2×2s I had lying around to
get the length right, then I’d know how long to cut the aluminum. I’d had inklings as I got each new piece of the scope that this was going to be a massive object, but I
really wasn’t mentally prepared for *how* massive. Once I cut the temporary “tubes”, I could knock the scope together pretty quickly, and there it was. The photo of the
OTA standing in the hall doesn’t really do it justice. When it’s standing up like that, the upper ring is at armpit level. It’s big.