My new telescope will have an 18" F4.5 mirror. I want to build much lighter than the 14" before.
The alt/az mount still has to be designed. Probably it will be a motorized fork mount for use with my telescope controller.
The tube
A double truss with three hexagonal rings, each truss has 6 aluminum pipes.
In the upper part the truss tubes are compressed by three strings, a construction similar to the 14" scope.
The lower part (the mirror box) has 6 tubes too, which are held under pressure by M8 threaded rods.
For a longer transport I can disassemble the mirror box and store the mirror in the middle ring.
The upper ring
Inside the upper ring the secondary mirror is held by a wire spider. Finally the wire will be a 0.6 mm thick steel string.
The two rings are made of 6 mm birch plywood. The sides are 6 mm plywood too, but I reduced the thickness to 3 mm.
At one corner I have to add the focuser board just below the ring.
