Building the Octagon Pt.45 It's [right] up there!

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Sunday 5pm 9th July 2017, in perfectly clear weather @ 70F, I climbed the ladder with the 7" f/12 refractor under one arm. Then the equally terrifying lift into the tube rings: Voila!

After using plenty of 4" screws on the plywood top plate and tightening the azimuth pivot nuts the mounting feels really solid. At least as stiff as the MkIV on its massive steel pier.

The balance is slightly tail heavy despite moving the tube weights to the top extent of their travel. Fitting the longer dewshield will fix that.  

Focusing does not disturb the image unduly and it settles quickly.

Typically, the moon at the moment is full and rises late. So there isn't much to look at except the distant trees. At 68x with the 32mm I could see fine detail on the leaves of trees at 450 yards.  After a warm sunny day there was strong thermal agitation visible.

More telescope posing after the sun had set behind the trees to the west. 

My wife insisted on the orange ratchet straps to fill the gaps in case I fell off the platform while not concentrating on my situation. There should be intermediate 2x4s at half obs. wall height but I haven't got around to it yet.  

I brought out the Baader solar foil filter and admired a large spot group as the sun sank towards our giant willow. A rather soft, handheld afocal snap is attached below using a non-name 20mm Plossl and plastic bottle top guide for the Cannon Ixus short zoom.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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