Updated: 2.24.05

Here's a shot of the 10" Newtonian that I built for imaging purposes. It uses 4 one-inch truss tubes of T6061 aluminum and 1/2" beech ply for the sides. The clamps are made from stacking 2 boards of 3/4" beech ply together before cutting out. The 3" bolts of the clamp feed through the side walls to clamping knobs on the sides. A DAR primary cell holds the Royce mirror and Protostar secondary (oversized) and diagonal make up the optics. The Feathertouch focuser (truly a work of art) sports the new brass clamp ring and brake.

Click on this image for a larger view

Check out first light of this Newt with an SXV-M25 camera, which was generously lent to me by AVA! This particular image used a Paracorr for field flattening.

The native system is f/4, but with the Paracorr, ends up around f/4.6. I also hope to add diagonal struts to stiffen the "Box Kite", as my kids have called it. A new MPCC coma corrector is the latest toy and has initially provided very good results.

In the few images taken with this Newtonian, I have found the optics to be far superior to the SCT I had been using. It still requires additional cross bracing and shields for the light, but has otherwise been a joy to use. A dovetail on the bottom serves to mount the scope to the Titan and one on the top holds the Tak Sky90 as a guidescope. The following image shows the Newtonian mounted on the Titan.

An AP pier, normally used for an AP900 head, has been modified to accept the Titan mount. The shortest pier was purchased (24" tube), which is a much better choice than using the Meade Giant Field Tripod (Newt is too high for good convenience).