The various pieces:
Here are a few of snapshots of the parts of the 6" f/7 Dobsonian we built for Astronomy Day 1999 at TheTech Museum:
The various pieces: | |
| All the parts | |
| Base parts: ground board, rocker bottom, ebony star / teflon bearings, center bolt | |
| Altitude bearings and friction brake; the CDROMs (courtesy AOL) are glued to the wooden bearing disks mostly for decoration but see below | |
| Brake. As you tighten the knob the screw pulls the knob against the CDROM and presses it against the side board. The resulting friction keeps the scope from falling when you change eyepieces (in theory anyway :-) | |
| Mirror blank and tool with pregenerated f/7 curves | |
| rocker sides and front | |
| Assembled mirror cell; mirror will be glued to the top piece with silicone | |
| Mirror cell parts | |
| Helical Focuser | |
| Spider; assembled from plywood pieces cut with a hole saw and thin wooden strips | |
| Spider painted and secondary mirror attached | |
| Tube: 8" ID Kwiktube 48" long | |