Ad Astra Observatory

I have decided to keep the LTA as-is (I had considered moving the middle ring, but pole seats take a Lot of mental effort to do correctly, so I’m going to stick with that size for now. Now, if I had an easy way to make pole seats in whatever orientation I wanted… that would be useful. I’m looking at you, CNC machine.

I also feel that the scope’s frame, on the whole, is pretty rigid. I am making a bet on the focuser board, and I think an upper tube cage will be plenty stiff to hold the heavy camera and focuser and &c.

I cut 4 “Trixie blanks” back in the day, by hand, with a circle jig and a router.

This morning, I built one in Python (and some other stuff), and Bob’s yer uncle.

I pulled the current (call it “Legacy”, this foul thing, ptui, you have to make the sound effects) Upper Tube Assembly and got ready to rebuild this thing.

I pulled all the bits from the ring,

… and banged together some struts. This was some 3/4 steel tube I had lying around; hey, the threaded inserts worked. I’m happy.

I had a nice piece of 3/4″ sanded ply sitting around, only 13″ wide, I think it was a shelf at one point. I attempted to cut a board to fit, it could be closer.

Now I need to figure out where to cut the focuser hole. The secondary can move up and down, but I’d love to be able to have the secondary bolt not stick out past the upper ring… I’ll figure it out. Tube length, spider mount (to the tubes?

I decided to declare victory and quit here for the day.

Next up, mount focuser, determine focal plane, and re-cut upper truss tubes.
Getting Trixie moving again. It’s the dawn of a new age.