The mirror cell originally was the standard kriege seat belt/ kevlar sling type and then a year ago I replaced it with a home made glatter sling complete with linear bearings riding on stainless steel pins/ bolts. After reading Mike Lockwoods article about mirror cells I decided to build a wiffle tree edge support cell on a moving plate. The original cell collimation bolts held the support triangles but in the new cell the collimation bolts move a plate which caries the support triangles, mirror and edge supports independent of the rear tailgate frame. This upgrade firmly holds the mirror in alignment, there is no side to side movement as in a sling setup, collimation holds a lot better, and views at low elevations are improved dramatically.
Mirror cell upgrade for an 18 inch dob.
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Mirror cell upgrade for an 18 inch dob.
The mirror cell originally was the standard kriege seat belt/ kevlar sling type and then a year ago I replaced it with a home made glatter sling complete with linear bearings riding on stainless steel pins/ bolts. After reading Mike Lockwoods article about mirror cells I decided to build a wiffle tree edge support cell on a moving plate. The original cell collimation bolts held the support triangles but in the new cell the collimation bolts move a plate which caries the support triangles, mirror and edge supports independent of the rear tailgate frame. This upgrade firmly holds the mirror in alignment, there is no side to side movement as in a sling setup, collimation holds a lot better, and views at low elevations are improved dramatically.
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Re: Mirror cell upgrade for an 18 inch dob.
Just found this thread.... nice work on the cell upgrade, I'm curious if you found the wiffletrees to be any better than the sling?
I've read Mike's articles and spoke with him at Allan's SDM gathering, but everything I have seen has shown a "Glatter" sling at COG to be as good as the wiffles...
Cheers,
Matt
Rainmaker “Excalibur” 18” F3.5 +SIPS @ 1860mm
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Re: Mirror cell upgrade for an 18 inch dob.
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