Meade DS-10, purchased c. 1983. 10-inch f/4.5 Newtonian reflector on an equatorial mount.
As you can see, I’m still grappling with the beast, only now it lives in Massachusetts, not Indiana.
On our last truly warm day before winter, I took a wire brush to the rust on the exposed parts of the equatorial mount. The rust was mostly confined to the balance-weight shaft, but I brushed off some chipping paint on the post as well, then painted all the exposed metal with anti-rust primer. (Except for the tripod feet, they’re already good as they are.) I’ve been waiting for another warm day to cover that primer with black paint, but since one hasn’t arrived, it looks like my mount has a case of the rust.
That’s a new Telrad, by the way.
I’ve been contemplating building a dob box using Stellafane’s instructions, but I left many of my power tools behind in Indiana and I don’t really have the space to build a box. Or the carpentry skills, really. Anyway, I’m also thinking about buying a custom dob mount instead of building one.
I’ve got a new motor to install (still), but since I don’t do any imaging, it seems like more trouble than it’s worth. What I am going to get done, though, is stripping the gunk out of the focuser and replacing it with … what … lithium, probably.
New equipment bins on observing table, Catherine setting up her refractor.
Our last observing session was mostly Saturn, but Catherine also did a lot of double-star sketching with her 90-mm refractor. I’ve been trying to figure out a better backyard workspace, but mostly that means subdividing the observing table for task grouping.
I’m trying to keep the equipment budget low. Managed to get away from NEAF 2017 having only spent $120, and $20 of that was on a t-shirt. The other $100 was for a Celesteron alt-az tripod. I really needed something heavier (more stable) for the 15×7o binos, as well as for the 90-mm Mak that I like to take camping. I’ve been using the PST on a lightweight photo tripod, so this is a definite upgrade for solar observing. It’s a bit of an overkill for our birding scope, but we took it out to the heron rookery at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord yesterday, and it was light enough that I didn’t mind carrying it up and down hills.
I’m working on this summer’s packing lists. More on that next.
