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16"
Dream Astrograph - filtered tube offering (16DAtube) |
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The first 20" OD hybrid tube has now been produced.
The raw tube is shown to the right and below. |
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Shane and Jeff are shown below (~355 lbs) sitting
on the 24 lb, 20" OD tube while it spans a gap of 52.0". |
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Click the image above to see more photos of the telescope. |
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The tube version of the 16" Dream Astrograph
comes equipped with the new 4"
Dream PDF electronic focuser and 3"
coma corrector. It also comes equiped with a unique forced,
filtered air design. In certain ways it outperforms the truss,
especially in low wind locations or inside domes, due to better
thermal and baffling performance. |
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Like almost every product Dream produces, this product
uses carbon fiber and sandwich core
technology extensively. All produced in house in one of Dream's
two ovens. Although this 16"
telescope is 20" in diameter and 59" long, it is estimated
to weigh 60 lbs or less, which includes the mass of the Dream
PDF focuser and 3" coma corrector. A 3"
set of collimation tools is almost complete. |
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The carbon fiber tube is designed with a 4.25"
clear ID below the focuser. This allows the customer to upgrade
to a standard 4" coma corrector. There is also a custom
version of this telescope that allows the use of a custom
4" coma corrector with extended back focus (80mm versus
60mm for the standard version). The custom corrector requires
a slightly longer focal length primary mirror and should be requested
at the time of order placement. |
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The profile design of this tube was chosen to allow
dovetail plates (or other designs) to mount to the flat portions
of the two key sides of the tube profile. This eliminates the
need for large diameter, heavy mounting rings. |
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Shown attached on both sides of the tube is a new 20.0" x 7.0" x 0.815"
dovetail plate. There are four locations on either side of
the tube that the dovetail can be attached. The renderings on
this page show the plate attached at the lowest bolt pattern.
The other three sets of holes can be seen above the plate. The
hole pattern occurs every 2.0". This accomodates imaging
trains from ~4.5 lbs to over 15 lbs. |
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Or the telescope can fit between the forks of a Fork
Equatorial or Fork Alt/Az mount. It also allows us to utilize
our Dream PDF focuser, which attaches with
a wide footprint (using large diameter bolts) and simultaneously
offers push/pull collimation. It does this without the need for
adaptors below the focuser. |
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Inside the large diameter air filter on the back of
the telescope are high volume, low noise and low vibration fans.
These same fans, in a lower total number of fans, are being used
on a 10" f5 telescope. As well
as another 10"
f5 that Dream produced. |
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The benefits of Dream's unique filtered air design
are numerous. It allows a much greater volume of air than other
designs. This is mainly due to the enormous surface area of this
type of filter. It doesn't restrict and therefore lower the volume
of air the fan can move (static pressure). As the customer of
the 10" f5 is finding out, moving
air does not allow dew formation either. |
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Continue on to page 2 of images and information about this
product. |
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