SDM aficionados have been waiting for this day for some time – Zane Hammond of the Magellan Observatory took delivery of the much anticipated SDM#007. The superb f3.7 mirror by Steve Kennedy has been well worth the wait and delivers tack sharp images even at this incredible focal ratio.

This scope is unique in Australia and can be assembled by one person in 2 or 3 minutes without using a ladder. Permanently placed in the observatory’s main dome, Dobzilla (as it has been named) will be a great asset for Zane and his guests.

As Peter succinctly stated “This scope redefines the meaning of ease of use and compactness in a large Dobsonian”.

We’re all looking forward to an extensive report on how well this telescope performs.

John Salini, former president and still active member of the Astronomical Association of Queensland chooses an 18” f4.5 as his observatory showpiece.

John plans to install his new scope at his dark sky site in the granite belt, housed in a roll-off-roof observatory which is currently under construction. His main interest lies in visual work, but John is planning to use the 18” for astrophotography too so his scope is coming fully loaded for ArgoNavis and ServoCAT.

SDM#010 is due for delivery early next year to coincide with the completion of the observatory. John’s acquisition will take the AAQ’s tally of SDM scopes to three!

Paul Haese plans to use his 18” f4.5 for planetary imaging with a DMK set-up and true tech filter wheel. Paul is already up there with the best, but really wants to strive for better images whilst imaging around 9000-11000mm in focal length; maybe even be the best.

Paul submits images to Dr John Rogers in England and Hans-Joerg Mettig in Germany who both do reports of cloud formation and activity on Jupiter. There are about 30 imagers involved around the globe, each doing great work despite local conditions.

Along with colleague Anthony Wesley, Paul is planning to develop a cooling cover by installing five Peltier coolers on a custom built aluminium front plate with corresponding fans on the inner face which will in effect create a refrigerator in the rocker box. This way, the Peltiers can be run on the way to a site or even at home before taking the scope outside and setting up. This will assist in helping the mirror reach ambient temperature and thereby prevent wave fronts from ruining imaging in good seeing conditions.

Paul enthused: “I am truly excited about the arrival of my new scope and glad that I can help keep some of the money within Australia. Supporting an Australian manufacturer just places icing on the cake. So much of astronomy related products are made in another country. Besides that Peter really cares about his product and pleasing his customer. A rare breed in this day.”

Peter delivered SDM#008 to Terry Dougherty of Victoria personally on Sunday afternoon and set up the scope together with its proud new owner. As Terry says: “The ‘new scope gods’ must have been taking a nap as that night was clear although the seeing conditions were not optimal, only suitable for medium magnification work. It was a treat and initially somewhat scary to see something so big slewing to object after object. We observed till about midnight and finished up with a nice view of Uranus. After packing up we retired to our living room where Peter with his violin and my wife Janie with her piano put on a duet. Peter showed his teaching skills by teaching me how to play the violin. I mastered, in a fashion, to be able to play “Mary had a little lamb”. We all then finally retired after a great night of stars and music. The next day Peter was up early and spent more time on adjusting the scope to his exacting requirements before heading off after lunch. The scope is fantastic and to have the designer and builder deliver the scope, set it up and share first light is a very unique experience.”

Just as the telescopes at SDM are continually being improved as new and better materials become available, all other areas come under Peter’s watchful eye too.

In his own words: “If you look at it in the vertical position, it is a stylised Greek letter lambda used in the P-V and RMS measurements of a mirror’s surface. If you look at it in the horizontal position it could be a stylised representation of the evolution of the universe ………then again it could be just a nifty logo!”