The Moment of Truth

At long last, with the 4.25" scope collimated and ready, I took some test shots. I pointed the scope at a local hilltop park about a mile or so away, and I was really blown away.

Here are the results:

I must say, I was quite impressed with the results of this rebuild, despite all the headaches in redesigning and overhauling a 10 year old scope. I would have preferred to replace the optics and go for an equatorial mount, but this isn't bad, especially if I end up using it for a secondary scope for those events with lots of kids wanting a turn at the eyepiece.

My last step will be to get two covers for the ends and finish wiring the cooling fan, but you can get an idea of the effect from thse pictures.

With this scope rebuilt, it's on the the 18"! I think the past few week have been good, because they've given me confidence to design and build on the 18" without worrying about too many issues.