Wood Wonders

ATM

Serving the Astronomy

Community since 2005

My NEW Truss Dob 12"

February 2009

Finally, after reading the bible of telescope building, "the Kriege/Berry book - The Dobsonian Telescope", cover to cover 4 or 5 times over the last 6 years, I built my first telescope. I have had the Orion XT12 w/Intelliscope since they came out and although the optics were decent the rest of the scope left much to be desired. My new scope has the primary from my Orion XT12 as well as the Intelliscope encoders and hand control. I upgraded the focuser with a Feather Touch and also the spider, with built in dew heater, and secondary from ProtoStar. I built a 3 circuit Due Heater from plans I found on the internet which controls heat to the ProtoStar secondary, Intelliscope hand control and auxiliary jack on the UTA for the finder scope or eyepiece heaters. I  also installed a cooling fan for the primary along with an Indoor/Outdoor thermometer to monitor the temperature difference.

For aligning the optics I use the Catseye Collimation tools which includes the New 2-Pupil Infinity XLK Autocollimator. The final touch was a shroud from Shrouds by Heather.

I'll have to say that this was to most detailed and rewarding projects I have ever done and could not be happier. It was truly a great experience and I enjoyed every minute, from design to building, and look forward to many hour under dark skies and the possibility of building a few more in the future.  

Ron Burrows - Wood Wonders

Owner/Craftsman/ATM

10640 Lafayette
Pinckney, MI 48169

 734-347-1913

 Ron@Wood-Wonders.com