Belated introduction of Robert W. Williams

[DDM160_user]

I have been here a while without an intro.

 

As a nerdy teenager I ground and autocollimation-figured my first optics, a 15 cm Cassegrain f/4 - f/12. The first views through those optics gave me a rush that I never recovered from. However, what I never could manage was to build a good mount.

 

I have built many mounts that had two things in common, - they looked nice and they were unusable. My plan in the late 1970s and early 80s was to finish my degree, get a job, and in the far future buy a high-end mount to carry my big optics. That's why I ended up with the DDM 160 and a custom-built ASA truss tube with correctors for both prime focus (f/3.4) and Cass focus (f/10.4) designed for my 62 cm optics.

 

This video sums up three years of construction work in two minutes. The video was fun to make, but as my optics are not yet finished, I had to borrow an HST/ESA-astrophoto from the public domain ;-)

Regrettably, this object is far south of the Norwegian southern horizon, ...oh well

 

https://vimeo.com/136882740

 

Cheers,

Robert

[Corpze]

Välkommen :-)

Really nice observatory you got there, is it planned to be operational this year?

[DDM160_user]

Tack så mycket!
The flat-field corrector at prime focus is already in place, and the corrector for the Cassegrain focus will arrive shortly from ASA. The final milestone is the figuring and alumizing of the primary and secondary mirrors. That is a big milestone.

 

Will I finish the optics this year? Hmm…I was sure I could finish them last year, but that did not happen. The day-job slows the project down. My target completion date is sometime this winter. We will see :-|

 

-Robert

[TimC]

All the best!!

 

Cheers,

Tim