After a long summer wait for primary mirrors to be completed and shipped from the US, no less than Six SDM telescopes are due to be delivered before Easter.

And the lucky new owners are in for a real treat if the star tests live up to the lab results – these telescopes are going to be pretty special.

Look at the image of John Salini’s Galaxy mirror test results on the left to see just how well figured these optics are.

In approximate order of delivery: Paul Haese, John Trudgen, Peter Brooks, Rod Berry, John Salini and Peter Long in a delivery round stretching from South Australia to Queensland.

Watch this space for more news of the four 18’s and two 20’s as they make their way to expectant owners!

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.

The price of mirrors is on the rise – a high global demand for quality optics and a limited supply of premium grade glass to an even more limited number of optical experts is driving significant increases in the cost of mirrors, not to mention the increasing length of waiting lists. SDM have a number of mirrors on pre-order from Galaxy to help speed delivery, and, for a limited period, SDM can get Discovery mirrors up to 24″ at 2006 prices. By ordering your Discovery mirror now, you can save over a thousand dollars – Only Terry Ostahowski of Discovery knows when this offer will end, so talk to Peter soon if you are thinking about moving to a large Dobsonian in the near future.

SDM aficionados have been waiting for this day for some time – Zane Hammond of the Magellan Observatory took delivery of the much anticipated SDM#007. The superb f3.7 mirror by Steve Kennedy has been well worth the wait and delivers tack sharp images even at this incredible focal ratio.

This scope is unique in Australia and can be assembled by one person in 2 or 3 minutes without using a ladder. Permanently placed in the observatory’s main dome, Dobzilla (as it has been named) will be a great asset for Zane and his guests.

As Peter succinctly stated “This scope redefines the meaning of ease of use and compactness in a large Dobsonian”.

We’re all looking forward to an extensive report on how well this telescope performs.

John Salini, former president and still active member of the Astronomical Association of Queensland chooses an 18” f4.5 as his observatory showpiece.

John plans to install his new scope at his dark sky site in the granite belt, housed in a roll-off-roof observatory which is currently under construction. His main interest lies in visual work, but John is planning to use the 18” for astrophotography too so his scope is coming fully loaded for ArgoNavis and ServoCAT.

SDM#010 is due for delivery early next year to coincide with the completion of the observatory. John’s acquisition will take the AAQ’s tally of SDM scopes to three!