Ad Astra Observatory

I have several birds and several stones and I am thinking about applying the latter to the former in a particular way. Here’s what I’m talking about.

Veronica is an 8″ f/5 scope, with the mirror mounted in the original Orion mirror cell.

Betty is an 8″ f/6 mirror that I ground myself, and I have an 8″ University Optics mirror cell and an 8″ f/6 Orion tube to mount in.

The thing is, the University Optics cell has different mounting points than the Orion cell. In particular, the Orion cell extends past the end of the tube and mounts to it.

Currently, Veronica needs to be mounted far forward in the tube, to accomodate the backfocus for the RCC. This is a very unstable mounting method, and causes lots of problems during collimation. I have considered cutting the tube so that I can mount the mirror cell with shorter bolts.

So this seems like it could work out nicely. Move Veronica to the UOptics cell, drill new holes in the tube for the new cell. Put Betty into the Orion cell which will then easily mount to the f/6 Orion tube. I even have an Orion Dob mount I could use for Betty.

I worry a little that Veronica is becoming the Frankenscope. Every part has been upgraded. That’s the price you pay for progress, I guess.