I have been busy building an 8" telescope for a friend of mine. It is a ballscope design like my current 8", but I decided to do some things different. Instead of a polycarbonate ball, I used a Polyethylene ball. It has a smoother action, thicker walls, and more round than the polycarbonate one. This scope is an F6.3 so it is longer than my F4.2 8". This presents some challenges, but I think I have overcome them. I am using larger diameter struts to be more rigid (I am using 1" struts on mine) and will need roughly 20 lbs of counterweight at the bottom of the ball.
This is an exciting time for me as I have never built a telescope for someone else before. I am really excited to see how this turns out. The proceeds from building this scope will help me move towards building my dream telescope to replace the Obsession I used to own. I hope to build a 16" scope complete with all that I want (Moonlight Focuser, right angle finder, etc.).
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