The Giant Binocular

In keeping with the excessive use of fastners on the base I kept the theme going with the focusser and main support plates.
Makes it look kind of industrial I think.

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Aligning the bolt holes for the large lazy susan bearing took a bit of time.
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I scribed the centre line on the hexagon, turned 6 long grub screws to a point and turned the whole top cage until all 6 points aligned with the scribed line then hit each grub screw with a hammer to make a centre pop mark.

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It works exceedingly well and all the holes lined up.
Its rotational movement is firm but smooth, I couldn't ask for it to be better.
 
Coming along nicely.
Here at the University of Arizona Mirror lab, they cast and grind the mirrors for large scale telescopes. I have been fortunate to tour the facility and was amazed at the tolerances they achieve.
Check this out mate: https://mirrorlab.arizona.edu

Paco
 
Lookin’ good! (no not you, the scope).

Where did you get your lazy susan bearings from? Im still trying to figure out how to do a rotating upper tube assembly for my 10” f4 build. My lathe just isn’t big enough to to turn my own. I’m really trying to keep the weight down, especially the front end.
 
Wow what a project..... I don't know if these parts would be useful to you or not but Have you considered using a old rear projector screen TV mirrors and lenses? They can be picked up on the street curb around me for free all the time and they have some nice projector lenses in the least that you might be able to utilize in your project. Just a thought but either way im along for the ride and cant wait to see your finished product.
 
Thanks, I have a couple of those first surface mirrors and the first thing I made was a large tilting mirror mounted to a set of 25x100 binos so I could aim downwards but see the sky.
It worked sort of but the glass is so thin that it warps just looking at it and it was impossible to merge the images for that reason.
I had thought of cutting some secondaries from them but am unsure how the twyman (sp?) effect would hit them.
Good idea though.
The lenses are a strange shape and I havnt found a use for them yet although they still burn ants:laughing:
 
A heads up for the lazy susan Chuck, they are alloy and pretty light.
BUT! I started mounting the lazy susan ring on the second truss.
No matter how I tried there was always one bolt hole that wouldnt line up.
Eventually I thought of checking the spacing of the manufacturers holes, they were uneven on this ring.
Simple task re-drilling a new one but I stupidly assumed the manufacturer would have automatically made them equidistant around the ring.
 
savarin said:
Thanks, I have a couple of those first surface mirrors and the first thing I made was a large tilting mirror mounted to a set of 25x100 binos so I could aim downwards but see the sky.
It worked sort of but the glass is so thin that it warps just looking at it and it was impossible to merge the images for that reason.
Click to expand...

Please bare with me here cause i know practically nothing about optics in this sense......So if I'm hearing you correctly you couldn't use those mirrors because of the way they flex yes? Is it possible to apply them to a small parobolic satellite dish to hold their shape to help stabilize the image? I like repurposing things other people call junk and usually see many of those sat dishes sitting next to the projection tv at the curb!
 
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