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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:29:35 MDT.

Congratulations on finishing up the mount for your reflector! Looks like fun!

Clear skys to you.

Very cool Matt.

Nearly full Moon during the GGG. Just saying.

Matt. Beautiful. Thank you for posting.

I have a 6 inch mirror gathering dust too. Mmmm.....

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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:30:06 MDT.

Matt,

This is very, very cool! Good on ya!

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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:30:37 MDT.

Following the Krustyledge, can I suggest the 'KrustyScope'...?

I can see my afternoon occupied with KrustyScope thoughts...

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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:31:11 MDT.

See, I knew I'd spend the afternoon thinking...

I imagine that the main strength is required in the primary mirror support, and the pivot. The support structure for the secondary mirror and eyepiece can probably be a lot less sturdy, so you might drop two of the six support arms. You might even knock it down to three arms, provided you can maintain the rigidity required to keep the optical alignment. I was scribbling ideas with 45-degree Y-unions and 135-degree elbows to provide a stepped support structure for a 3 or 4 arm support...

The 45-degree Y-unions might also allow a triangulated cross-bracing. You might even used a diameter reducing union, so that the cross-bracing is a smaller diameter...

I spent ages playing with the design of the Krustyledge, modelling it in SketchUp, fiddling with different setups. But I don't do big wall climbing, so I don't need a Krustyledge.

I haven't got a 6" mirror, or secondary, or eyepiece, and I don't really do astronomy, so I don't need a KrustyScope.

I have to keep telling myself that I don't need these things, and stop trying to design them...

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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:32:03 MDT.

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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:32:52 MDT.

You can't touch em but you sure can get a closer look. Very nice by the way!

Very nice, but I couldn't help thinking to myself 'carbon fibre tubing and sheet'. Stiffer and lighter than PVC ...
Ignore, just me.

Cheers

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Edited by Ice-axe on 10/18/2012 19:28:58 MDT.

Many years ago, I thought about playing with a very lightweight mirror created using a flexible, metallised plastic (e.g. acrylic mirror 'glass'), mounted onto a vacuum ring system. You'd pump out air from behind the mirror, and the mirror would flex due to the air pressure. I think I managed to convince myself that the shape ought to be parabolic, but I'm sure I could be wrong.

Ideally, you might even be able to use metallised mylar 'space blanket', provided you could stretch it tight, drum-stylee, to remove the wrinkles.

As with most of my ideas, I never got around to experimenting, but it certainly offered the hope of a light, cheap, easy to manufacture mirror.