Restoring the 16" RCOS Telescope.
(Fixing up an Army Surplus Telescope.)
May 2022
I had a "Wanted" ad on several years on a couple of websites, looking for a scope like this, except the civilian version.
This one is a military version, referred to as an "RCOS rugedized version".
So it is a US Army surplus 16" RCOS telescope.
It was waiting for me in Pennsylvania, so it took a week and a 4009 mile road trip to bring it home.
It is a very good thing that we enjoy road trips.
The Army boys had cut a hole in the side at the front for some reason.
The tube is made of carbon fiber, and I knew very little about that, so I first had to learn about how to patch it.
A few weeks later the fixit job is done, painted and buffed out.
Unless you know where the mistakes are, it looks pretty good.
The next part will be to rewire the inside, which was also "modified" by the army boys.
While thinking about the rewire job I started considering what RCOS had used for a focus motor and why they had used it.
On the left is a servo motor which is the originally used motor and on the right is a simple stepper motor with a 5:1 reduction gear.
The servo motor costs 5 times what the stepper/reduction motor costs.
The control electronics for the servo cost 7 times what it does for the stepper.
While all of the above was going on I had pulled the mirrors out and sent them away to be re-coated.
The control box.
This scope did not come with a control box of any sort.
I tried several approaches. The first was to try to find a controller that controlled the original servo motor.
That combination was quite expensive and unnecessary.
The next was a 3-axis CNC controller board. It worked, but no real software.
The one pictured, is made/sold in Spain by a company called Lunatico Astronomia. It is the Platypus II unit.
I have pulled the main board out of its box and remounted it along with some other components.
This one works and has pleasant astronomy oriented software.
Here I am trying to fit everything into a Hammond aluminum box.
Everything fits!
I've got everything needed in the Hammond box.
I Just need to tidy it up a bit and substitute some carbon fiber sheet for the tongue depressors.
Once that is done I just need to drill some holes in the end pieces to let the wires in and out.
US Army Surplus RCOS 16" (ruggedized version)
Done
Collimated (except for star test tweaking).
Fans work.
Precision Instrument Rotator (PIR) works.
Focuser works with 0.000025" per step resolution.
Dew Heaters work.
Now to get it up to the observatory.
Mounted, Balanced, Homed and ready to go.
August 2023
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