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[OM] The Old 14" and New 16" 'Scope Saga [was Wooo Hoooo . . . Found th

Subject: [OM] The Old 14" and New 16" 'Scope Saga [was Wooo Hoooo . . . Found the Lens Hood!]
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:38:05 -0500
At 06:44 AM 10/31/04, Richard wrote:

>Hi John,
>
>Your 14" Celestron doesn't have a drive?  Must be a pain to view
>anything if it doesn't.  If it does, why not piggyback the OM and
>Tamron  on the Celestron and guide through it?

The 14" 'scope isn't mine.  It's in the IU-Kokomo observatory:
   http://www.kac.johnlind.net/
Unfortunately it doesn't have a piggyback camera mount . . . won't be up 
much longer either . . . not worth adding one now.  I need to get a fairly 
lightweight GEM/RA-drive and polar scope that can hopefully mount to my 
heavy duty Bogen (I have an extra center column for it).

Attempted installation of the new 16" Meade that will replace it, the Lunar 
eclipse, and having the observatory open for public viewing of the eclipse 
was another story . . .

We were supposed to have a new 16" Meade up before the eclipse.  A new 6" 
Takahashi refractor will also be piggybacked on it (need to get the 16" up 
first).  That was repeatedly delayed by the school.  Sufficient sniveling 
by the Physics Department and the fact that a news release had already gone 
out announcing the observatory would be open for the eclipse got some 
facilities folks reallocated for a couple days . . . just before the 
eclipse (typical bureaucracy).  In the process of unpacking the remaining 
mounting hardware, we found "insurmountable" pier mounting problems with 
the pier, custom made equatorial wedge and the Meade 'scope RA drive 
base.  The 14" and its equatorial wedge had already been dismounted.  It 
had to get put back on the pier the day of the eclipse.  Getting its ~300 
pounds of mass hauled up a narrow stairwell and puting it back on the pier 
in a few hours without damaging it was an achievement itself . . . still 
needs to be polar aligned . . . wasn't important for Lunar viewing by the 
public; the Moon would drift even if it were.

Monday evening I need to make some measurements to ensure the rework of the 
new equatorial wedge puts the new 'scope in the center of the dome (the 
pier is offset).  If there's clear enough sky we'll do a rough polar 
alignment of the old 14" 'scope to 44' from Polaris toward Cassiopeia . . . 
don't know if we'll have enough time to tweak it with North-South and 
East-West drift measurements.

-- John Lind


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