Ad Astra Observatory

in Albert Highe’s article, he mentions that the reason the 3 tube straight truss design works for him is because it is a Dob.

For an Equatorially mounted scope, I think I need a more standard truss design.

I have essentially 2 choices. I can either add strings to stiffen up the scope, or I can rebuild it into a full 6-strut truss.

I am already partway towards putting in the strings, but I ran into some snags.

The parts for the full truss will cost about $300.

I am leaning towards the string concept, but I want to make sure my other ideas are covered too.

Using ball and socket joints at both ends of the truss tubes, I could have a stiff system that didn’t need a lot of pre-thought about angles and truss placement. Also, I could drill out the connector blocks so that I could through-bolt, thus taking the stress off of the middle ring (this assumes I want to do a upper and lower set of trusses, doing only uppers means it will cost $150, unless I need to buy new tubes…).

I can calculate the length of the new trusses by measuring the strings that are already in. I have a feeling I will need at least 2 more tubes.