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20" Folded Newtonian for Ajai Sehgal,
Canada
An Observatory Class Instrument
Located in Osoyoos, B.C.
Our first client, Ajai Sehgal, is a senior
programmer at a major software company. He is an avid amateur astronomer who
enjoys photographing the heavens. Ajai Sehgal has been involved with amateur
astronomy for more than 30 years. Mr. Sehgal is an expert in software
development and digital imagery and, notably, he is the author of Hidden Image
astronomical image processing software and the Maximum Entropy Deconvolution
algorithm which is utilized in MaxIm DL. Ajai is an active member of the Royal
Astronomical Society in Canada.
Construction, Painting, Crating and
Shipment
The manufacturing process went quite smoothly
since Ajai's telescope is nearly identical to our standard production
instruments. The only notable differences are:
- A Custom Base designed for operation at a latitude of
49°. The north end of the base abruptly angles down toward the floor. This
feature reduces the base's footprint to a reasonable size, considering the
observatory's high latitude. Every instrument we build features a custom base
designed for the customer's latitude.
- 3-15/16" R.A. Shaft and Bearings instead of our standard
3" R.A. shaft and bearings. Ajai wanted the ULTIMATE in stability! The larger
shaft and bearings were easy to incorporate into the basic design, and only
required a minor change in the design of the R.A. drive assembly mounting
/ adjustment plates.
Base (lat 49 deg.) for 20" Folded
Newtonian |
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Fork and Optical Tube Assembly components |
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Base painted and on shipping skid |
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Fork on painting jig, painted |
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Fork painted and lowered on skid |
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Base, Painted and in Shipping Crate |
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Painted Tube Components |
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Painted Secondary Mirror Holder Components |
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Top of Fork in Shipping Crate |
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R.A. Disk, Secured in Fork Crate |
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Bottom of Fork, Drive Plates in Crate |
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Tube Assembly, Dec. Disk in Shipping Crate |
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