Pierre has left us, but his legacy lives on in his myriad optical creations. This page will chronical the rebuilding of one of them-his motorized, 8" F/4 binocular chair. I happened onto it during one of the first SAC ATM meetings. A lot of Pierre's equipment and supplies were left behind. Some were brought to the metting for input on what to do with it. Someone was suggesting we split the optical tube assemblies into two 8" F/4 Dobs to be used as club scopes for newbies. I found this idea abhorent, so I volunteered to take it all home, evaluate its disposition and refurbish it if possible. I had a plan to install it in the rolloff roof of my Stone Haven Observatory, for use by visitors to star parties I regularly give. It's only been recently I've been able to find the time to look into the restoration. I believe I'll have most of the materials I need on hand, but some restoration of the building is now in order. More on that later. In the mean time, I'll take pictures of the chair in its present state and as it gets fixed. I'll also be entering the plans into a CAD program to document all dimensions and so on. I hope you're sitting comfortably...
The chair consists of four basic structures. The base, the azimuth box, the chair section and the optical tube assembly. This page will describe the optical tube assemblies, (OTA) and subsequent pages will describe the other major parts. Hopefully, this arrangement will cut down on the load times for all the pictures I'll need to include. The OTA consists of two, 8" F/4 telescopes mounted such that the light beams come to focus between the two separate tubes. They are rectangular boxes made of plywood and hardboard and are held stable relative to each other with 1" aluminum tubing at three strategic points-one above at the center and two below on either end. At the center of mass of both units is mounted an altitude bearing that allows the unit to be rotated upward, allowing the user entrance to the chair. The OTA is then lowered such that the user's eyes can access the eyepiece/focuser unit mounted between the two tubes.
The new, refurbished parts of the chair will be described here.
Page URL: http://www.stargazing.net/Astroman/ATM/Binocularchair.html