Hello
Fellow Stargazers, and ATMs! ...and Welcome to the web pages
covering the construction of the my telescope, the VSC's "SAO 10"
f/5.6 'Gary Barabino' Fork Mounted Newtonian Reflector". The
inspiration to build this instrument goes all the way back to the
early years of the VSC, when all I owned was a small department
store telescope - a Jason/ Empire Model 280 Constellation 60mm
f/12 Alt-Azimuth refractor. Now the dream has become a reality. I
thank my old friend, mentor, and colleague Gary Barabino
for showing me the ropes in the early days, and I dedicate this
scope to him.
Understanding that if I were to buy a completed factory built
scope of this magnitude, it would have cost a small fortune. It
has always been the philosophy of the VSC to offset the high cost
of manufactured components by building them ourselves. I remember
back in the early 1970's when Gary and I would construct
our own accessories, such as equatorial mounts, star diagonals,
solar viewing apparatuses, and light reducing diaphragms. Many
items fabricated from cardboard. tape and even first surface
mirrors from busted up vehicles in the neighborhood. We even
designed and constructed an extension tube to help in reducing dew
and stray light for our telescopes, which we called the "Obscur-O-Tube".
Now companies like "Orion Telescopes and Binoculars" offer the
same type of device. However, the cost is much higher than
constructing your own. Therefore, we hold fast to our traditions
of hand building components and astronomical instruments that will
meet, or exceed factory-made specifications at a substantially
lower cost. In following suit to this tradition, the idea to
construct the SAO 10" Newtonian was pursued. We thought we would
also share our efforts with the astronomical community beginning
with the pictorial and instructional overview depicting the
construction of this fine instrument. More projects are sure to
follow. To start your journey, please click on the photos above to
take you to a particular components' construction process. We hope
everyone will fine this information beneficial in their current and
future projects.
FIRST
LIGHT
REPORT
-- JULY
14, 2006
This day
marked another pinnacle in the history of the Vega Sky Center with
the First Light testing of the new SAO Coulter 10" f/5.65 "Gary
Barabino" Newtonian Equatorial Fork Mount reflector. Gary Barabino
of the VAO travel from Waggaman, LA on vacation to the Sunshine
State to take part in the first light of this grand instrument. I
had just completed test assembling the 10" Newtonian fork mount
and decided to go ahead with mounting the optics since Gary was in
town to give him the honor of First Light.
The scope
was rolled out of the garage and the first object of interest we
spotted was Jupiter, looming in the constellation Libra. We had
not fully aligned the optics in the scope, but they were setup
sufficiently for the test. Upon targeting Jupiter using a 26mm 2"
GSO eyepiece, we were graced with a splendid image. The Jovian
moons Calisto, and Ganymede were on one side while Io, and Europa
held tight on the other. The Red Spot was not visible, but I could
see the shadow of Io just grazing the limb of Jupiter. Though the
optical combination only yield 55x, this gave me verification of
the integrity of the mirror.
Next it
was time to test the optics on a deep sky object. We chose M8, the
Lagoon Nebula. Gary took the drivers seat and quickly landed the
nebula in the field of view. He focused and gave out Vega's famous
yell of "Look at that!...". The intense center nebulosity glowed
fairly bright, and the cluster just to side glistened. Not bad for
a set of optics created back in 1986 and being used for the first
time. We continued sweeping the area of the center of the Milky
Way in and near Sagittarius and saw countless stars. Star clusters
sparkled like a hand full of diamonds! Unfortunately, the testing/
observing came to a rather and sudden end when clouds begin to
filter in from the east obscuring the sky completely in a matter
of minutes. Nevertheless, we accomplished what we sat out to do,
and that was to verify the optics were of good quality. We
concluded the session with removing the OTA and taking out the
mirrors to complete the finishing process of the scope.
Clear
Skies, Forever! Mel Dawson The Vega Sky Center
Sincerely, Mel Dawson
..."Clear Skies, Forever!"
