Hi,

We are working on converting a club scope from newtonian to cassegrain. The mirror was originally in a cassegrain so the central hole is there.

I was asked to do some research on the following and I thought this would be a good place to start.

1. We need to find an optical tube assembly for a 25 inch (actually 24.6 but whose counting?) Neighsmith (?) Cassegrain. We would like carbon fiber but that is not critical. Does anyone have a source for something like this? We would want to have it made rather than trying to do it ourself.

2. We are looking for an Alt/Az Equatorial mount. It does not have to be electronically controlled but we would want to be able to upgrade if possible. We have found Mathis Instruments as a first supplier but we are looking for others. We anticipate that that the finished scope is going to weigh between 400 and 600 pounds. It will be fixed to a concrete pier.

Any suggestions or direction would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave Gede
Westminister Astronomical Society, Inc.

• Parts - bobmay - November 13, 2003 - 19:11 UTC