24" f/3.5 Dobsonian Telescope

My largest telescope yet, with a primary mirror made by Nova Optical. I got the primary at a steep discount thanks to a small edge chip. Other than the 25" Obsession at WAS and the Van Vleck Observatory 24", my 24" was the largest telescope in Connecticut.

The original scope weighed about 200 pounds and was transported in my Toyota Sienna minivan with a pneumatic tire/wheelbarrow handle system and handicap ramps. Setup time was roughly 30 minutes. The eyepiece is almost always reachable with little more than a short step stool and is low enough to stand on the ground about 50% of the time.

The new version of the scope (yellow bearings) is around 140 pounds, an inch or two shorter, and sets up in about 15 minutes. It also features fans, infrared-reflective stain, composite materials and a slightly better mirror cell.

The 24" was designed mainly for viewing galaxies, globular star clusters, and planetary nebulae. With a 2454mm focal length (a bit longer than a C9.25), it's unable to get a field of view much bigger than 3/4 of a degree, and I'm boxed in at magnifications above 100x at essentially all times. Such are the compromises of all large scopes.

Unlike my previous builds, I designed, welded, and constructed the mirror cell on this instrument and had to learn a fair amount of metalworking to connect and tap/thread all of the steel and aluminum pieces. I also learned how to work with composite materials and join together multiple layers of plywood.

The scope was rebuilt in late 2021 for a lighter weight, but I never used it much after moving to Tucson so it is now in a new home in California.