Introducing "Electa"

After some final tweaks, "Electa" is done.  She is named after my great, great, great grandmother, Electa Ann Grubaugh Hissong who lived from 1841 to 1934.

Close-up of name tag I had made.  You can see a piece of brass stock I temporarily attached as well.  This will be replaced with a counterweight system from Scopestuff.com.

Here is the secondary ring with a Protostar, 3-vane spider and secondary.  The secondary is heated using Protostar's built in dew heater.  The light baffle on the other side of the ring is made of Kydex and I attached some Protostar flocking paper.

The focuser is a Kineoptics HC-2.  Dennis Steele from Dobstuff.com made the spider brackets focuser board.  The struts and strut seats are made by Moonlight Focuser.

"Electa" and "Ada" side by side.  This has been a great project.  I had so much fun and I learned a great deal.  First light was last night and I noticed I had the truss tubes cut about and inch short.  I was able to compensate for it by using spacers on the focuser.  The action was stiffer than I would have liked too.  This evening, I applied some Turtle Wax Express Shine Spray wax to the laminate bearing surfaces and the scope moves just like my old Obsession.  I observed M81, M82, M37, and Mars this evening.  I cannot wait to get her under dark skies!