Super-Ultra RFT Telescope


This telescope was designed specifically for ultra-wide field viewing of the skies. I have a Celestron 8, but I needed an easy to set up, portable, rugged telescope for casual viewing.

The heart of the telescope is an enormous 5.25" ~F3.5 lens from a KS-87A Air Force recon camera. This giant chunk of glass is from the 50's or 60's, and cost (you,ha ha) about $18,000 in dollars of that era. It cost me a lot less. It spent most of its life looking down (at what??). Now, working for me, things will always be looking up!!

The tube is made from hardwood for stability. The diagonal and Crayford-style focuser are 2". The only eyepiece that I presently use is a Rini 35mm. It is of very good, but not great quality; however, it was definitely worth what I paid for it ($40). The mount is made from 2" pipe with a union for easy transportability. The base is made from my 1984 Oldsmobile's full size spare and an adapter that fits the wheel's bolt pattern and has a pipe flange on the other side.

The first night I used it, I was pleased with the view, although there is a small amount of distortion due to the extreme curvature of the lenses, and also because of the eyepiece's limitations. I happened to see two satellites moving across the field of view! I've been thinking of getting a better mount for it, but, in many ways, this would defeat the purpose of the telescope.

Figure 1. Telescope and Mount.

Figure 2. Front View.

Figure 3. Rear View.

Update:

My wife made me get rid of the Oldsmobile. So I can't use the mount anymore. I screwed the plate that came with the CG-5 to this telescope. I found some really nice polished brass weights, about 7 pounds, to add to the CG-5. This accommodates both this telescope and the Celestron loaded. I have some more of these, which have 2" diameter holes in the middle so you have to screw the weight to the original CG-5 weight. I'm selling them for $16.00 each. They look great!!

I painted the telescope and added a guide scope to it, in addition to putting it on the CG-5 mount. Note that the mount is SERIOUSLY overloaded; I don't expect it to guide automatically, but given the superwide field and low magnification of this scope, I don't expect this to be a problem.

Figure 4. Updated with New (And Seriously Overloaded) Mount (A CG-5, with Stepper Motors)

Figure 5. Celestron 8 on Mount