ODK 16" Scope

Just arrived today weighing in at 36kg without the 80mm TMB Apo on top of it.

ODK 16" Rear View

3" Crayford focuser (which will be set up for Robofocus). The two cables coming out the back are for the Dew heaters fitted behind the primary and secondary mirrors. Spiral pattern on the back plate is a milling effect which only shows on the camera flash.

ODK 16" Front View

Just need a helper now to actually lift it on to the mount.

A very impressive instrument, you must be getting antsy to get it on the mount!
Enjoy in good health

Nice scope Kieran!
8kg lighter than mine, believe it or not.
Nearly gave myself a hearty attack trying to put in on the mount!

Welcome to the 16" club!

What camera will be attached to it?

It will be the SXV H16. 15mm chip so it should be a full flat field providing I get the collimation bang on. Need to do a lot of attachments, cable tidies and testing but I hope to be fully set up by the time the clocks change.

P.S. I apologise for the lack of clear skies in advance.

Superb instrument

Looking forward a full setup pic!!

Clear skies (eventually)

That's a big chunk of telescope.

Time to put that Mesu mount through its paces.

Now that's a serious scope.
Do you have a list of targets in mind for it yet ?

Sweet !

Is there a way to lock down the primary or is it fixed in position by default?

Dave,

The only target I have in mind at the moment is getting on the mount without dropping it. After that asteroids, supernova and a few pretty pic's to test it out.

Michael,

The primary is fixed. I've been talking to Olly Penrice who has a 14" ODK. He said it holds collimation perfectly and his only complaint is about the focuser which after a year or so is starting to slip. I intend to attach the robofocus motor so this should hold any future slippage.

I would also say that OOUK, although very informative at the start of the purchase and promised a delivery date of 12/9/13 failed totally in costumer service. Excuses for delays which basically I put down to the fact that they never started production until I paid the full amount on 4th September.

That's interesting to know.
Thanks for the warning.

The beast is safely on the mount but I'm shy of the counterweight target I need to fully balance the scope. Typical that I had clear sky last night and tonight.

What diameter is the counterweight shaft?
What diameter and length are your existing counterweights?

Shaft is 40mm. 3 x 10kg weights are 150mm diameter and 84mm thick. 1 x 5kg 42mm thick.

Kieran,
When I had the Gemini G41, I had the same issue. I bought the cast iron counterweights in Argos.
www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9003194.htm
They usually come with a 25mm hole in the centre. You will need to get someone to core out a larger hole of 41mm diameter. Not easy to find someone to do that - cast iron is a very hard material and it's easier to core a hole into a solid piece of metal than one which already has a hole.
The counterweights are approx 270mm diameter and 30mm thick. This gives much better ballast at the bottom end of the bar than standard counterweights and should do the trick. Just make sure that the counterweight directly above is well secured and that should prevent an slippage or sliding on the bar.
Hope this helps.

I got a 10kg weight dispatched at 3pm from Modern Astronomy. Should be here tomorrow/Wed and possible clear sky Wed night. Tomorrow I'm off so should be able to get the Robofocus on and Kendrick connected and attached. Then need to do some cable tidies, rebalance with ccd/filter wheel extension tubes etc then check collimation. Think I'll skip putting the Apo on for the moment till I get a feel for how this beast performs. Apo will add another 4.5kg.

Got the scope balanced. Took 46kg to do it! Got the ccd on then had to re-balance and couldn't resist taking a test shot of M33.



There is a light gradient in the image either due to the laptop screen in the observatory or the fact that the security light was on. Also I didn't check the filter wheel till after shut down and found it was on the green filter. Still have to calibrate robofocus which still has a microstep size set for an sct which is too coarse for a crayford. Back to the manual

Great to see first light.
Looks to be tracking well.
Was that auto guided?
What exposure time did you use?

That was just 20 x 30 seconds unguided. The extra weight has knocked off the polar alignment which was good for 2 minutes with the 10". Observatory is still in too much chaos to sort it all out at the minute.

phoenix wrote:

Got the scope balanced. Took 46kg to do it!

wow, my entire 20" scope doesnt weight that much !
Very nice image btw, a full mosaic'd image of m33 would look awesome !