Submitted by user imhotep

This project involves the design and construction of a specialized kind of telescope. Simply put, and astrograph is a telescope that is designed specifically for the purpose of astrophotography. There are numerous examples of amatuer-made astrographs in addition to several branded models sold by various manufacturers. My humble attempt to build an astrograph is by no means a unique endeavor or is my design completely original. I am relying heavily upon the knowledge and experience of other ATMs as well as various virtual and physical tools to design and build this telescope. I am including my own unique twists on the materials and appearance of the final product. For various reasons I have chosen to build a classic newtonian with an aperture of 8 inches. The primary mirror will be a Royce conical parabaloid at F/5 yielding a focal length of 1000mm. Arguably the greatest limiting factor upon my chosen focal length is the tracking capabilities of my mount. An aperture of 10 inches at F/5 was very tempting but I worried over the bulk of the resulting OTA, not to mention the burden on my mount. I am already concerned about wind being an issue with the 43-inch-long tube that my plans call for. Upon completion this instrument will serve as the main imaging scope of my astrophotography platform. For those who are interested and/or savvy about related astronomy equipment, this astrograph will be mounted to a hypertuned Atlas EQ-G with EQMOD and CDC at the helm. A QHY8 CCD camera will be used to image with the astrograph. I autoguide uisng a DSI Pro and PHD Guiding v.1.9. My guidescope is currently a tandem ATM project to the astrograph and should be completed around the same time. Thanks for checking out my project!