Obsessed!

On the 27th December Peter headed off to Sydney with a car full of tools and telescope components, and a furniture van full of telescope cases.
He had been asked by Fred K of the 3 Rivers Foundation (3RF) to do some work on their 6 Obsession telescopes here in Australia.

3RF run a summer camp in the US with a special emphasis on music, theatre and astronomy. They have placed four 18 inch and two 25 inch Obsession scopes in the caretakership of Lachlan MacDonald, Tony Buckley, John Bambury and Andrew Murrell (of the ASNSW), with the aim of making viewing of the night sky through big Dobs more accessible to the public.

Peter supplied pole cases, secondary cases and accessory cases. He also supplied and fitted cat stalks which have the ArgoNavis, servoCAT wired hand pad and the wireless hand pad receiver attached. Peter ran all the wiring in secret routed channels inside the rocker box. Next he ran power from the rocker box up to the mirror box and put some terminal posts on the back of the fan board. Power was then distributed to the fan and also to two of the poles (via a spring loaded “bullett” inside the split block) which carried power to the secondary cage. A KENDRICK DIGIFIRE 7 dew control box was mounted on the secondary cage and customised “dew not” heater straps were fitted to the Telrad, eye piece and finder. He also ran power to the DG3 secondary heater which is siliconed to the back of the secondary mirror.

It took 6 days (and nights) to complete the work. A day to recover, and another day to drive home. Peter would like to thank Lachlan and John for making their places available to him and for their invaluable assistance and advice.