Paul Haese, also known in internet circles as ‘Rumples Riot’, can proudly take his place on the world stage of planetary photographers; his images are often seen published in magazines and in features on the Web.

Realising that the sheer resolving power of 18″ could take the science to the next level, Paul has been working with SDM#014 to create the ultimate planetary imaging scope. His exploits can be seen on South Celestial Pole a leading Australian astronomy forum where he keeps his SDM Blog which chronicles the issues facing the imager using a big Dob and showcases his innovative solutions. Paul’s preliminary results are simply stunning.

And just for the record – that’s Ganymede’s shadow just beginning to cross the face of Jupiter. We’re looking forward to the rest of the season!

A delighted Rod Berry comes to grips with the sheer size of SDM#012. His 20″ F5 has been an instant hit with his family, and, as can be seen in his Gallery, this versatile instrument appears to be doubling up as an adventure playground during the day!

Unfortunately for Rod, the Weather Gods have struck with unprecedented force and left him thoroughly clouded-out and having to wait for first light. In the meantime join Rod and friends over in Ice-in-Space debating SDM#012‘s new name …

After a long summer wait for primary mirrors to be completed and shipped from the US, no less than Six SDM telescopes are due to be delivered before Easter.

And the lucky new owners are in for a real treat if the star tests live up to the lab results – these telescopes are going to be pretty special.

Look at the image of John Salini’s Galaxy mirror test results on the left to see just how well figured these optics are.

In approximate order of delivery: Paul Haese, John Trudgen, Peter Brooks, Rod Berry, John Salini and Peter Long in a delivery round stretching from South Australia to Queensland.

Watch this space for more news of the four 18’s and two 20’s as they make their way to expectant owners!

On the 27th December Peter headed off to Sydney with a car full of tools and telescope components, and a furniture van full of telescope cases.
He had been asked by Fred K of the 3 Rivers Foundation (3RF) to do some work on their 6 Obsession telescopes here in Australia.

3RF run a summer camp in the US with a special emphasis on music, theatre and astronomy. They have placed four 18 inch and two 25 inch Obsession scopes in the caretakership of Lachlan MacDonald, Tony Buckley, John Bambury and Andrew Murrell (of the ASNSW), with the aim of making viewing of the night sky through big Dobs more accessible to the public.

Peter supplied pole cases, secondary cases and accessory cases. He also supplied and fitted cat stalks which have the ArgoNavis, servoCAT wired hand pad and the wireless hand pad receiver attached. Peter ran all the wiring in secret routed channels inside the rocker box. Next he ran power from the rocker box up to the mirror box and put some terminal posts on the back of the fan board. Power was then distributed to the fan and also to two of the poles (via a spring loaded “bullett” inside the split block) which carried power to the secondary cage. A KENDRICK DIGIFIRE 7 dew control box was mounted on the secondary cage and customised “dew not” heater straps were fitted to the Telrad, eye piece and finder. He also ran power to the DG3 secondary heater which is siliconed to the back of the secondary mirror.

It took 6 days (and nights) to complete the work. A day to recover, and another day to drive home. Peter would like to thank Lachlan and John for making their places available to him and for their invaluable assistance and advice.

The price of mirrors is on the rise – a high global demand for quality optics and a limited supply of premium grade glass to an even more limited number of optical experts is driving significant increases in the cost of mirrors, not to mention the increasing length of waiting lists. SDM have a number of mirrors on pre-order from Galaxy to help speed delivery, and, for a limited period, SDM can get Discovery mirrors up to 24″ at 2006 prices. By ordering your Discovery mirror now, you can save over a thousand dollars – Only Terry Ostahowski of Discovery knows when this offer will end, so talk to Peter soon if you are thinking about moving to a large Dobsonian in the near future.