Saturday, February 9, 2008

The World's Clumsiest Optical Bench

The World's Clumsiest Optical Bench

Before I spend the money on the square aluminum tubes on which to mount the upper and lower tube assemblies, I wanted to make sure that I had the dimensions right. I set them up at about the right distance in the garage.


Click to enlarge


You may be wondering, "Can you really get everything aligned adequately to test whether the focal point is correct?" By eye, no. I was beginning to get rather frustrated with all this, then I pulled out the Orion Deluxe Laser Collimator that I bought several years ago, turned it on, and everything became much easier. Then it was just a matter of making some adjustments to the diagonal, and adjusting the collimation screws on the main mirror.

Then I opened up the garage, and tried to bring the 35mm eyepiece to focus. That should be about 56 power. What did I see? The snowbank in front of the house, which is far too close to focus--but I could see what seems to be a Ford pickup truck at the edge of the field--and quite large.

So I stand up, look that direction--and where's the pickup truck?


Click to enlarge


I think it might be over at the Good's house (the people that were neighborly a few days ago and brought the road grader up our driveway). But I sure couldn't find it with the zoom lens on my camera.

I have increased confidence that I haven't wasted a pile of money!

No comments:

Post a Comment