Ad Astra Observatory

The spider and secondary holder turned up on Friday. It’s a *big* secondary holder. All of my previous ones have been “glue to the back” style, this is a “mirror goes inside” style. Gives the full effect of how big the thing is.

I got the dimensions all laid out and attached the spider to the top ring.

I have the hole cut and spots for mounting bolts marked on the focuser board.

I cut the collimation/vent holes in the bottom ring.

I cut the cleats to attach the mirror cell to the bottom ring and the focuser board to the top ring and the main mounting plate to the mirror box.

I should be able to attach all the cleats in the next night or two Once that’s done, the only “complicated” thing to do is attach the focuser board to the top ring (it needs to be square, etc.), and then I can assemble the whole OTA in fairly short order.

If all goes well, I might be able to put some light on the mirror before July 4. We’ll see.