I uploaded the first of (hopefully) many in-process shots of my 17.5" Newtonian, to my Gallery page 4: http://www.utahastronomy.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=Chuck&id=Seventeen... With the mold ready, the plan is to do the fiberglass layup next week. It will be a traditional, one-piece solid tube, done in gloss white. The surface quality of the tube will be rough right out of the mold, since it will duplicate the inside of the Sonotube. I plan on refinishing it after fabrication, and bring it to a high gloss. I'm using the Wyorock 2" Crayford focuser, which utilizes a thread-on base, so you can unscrew the focuser and mount just about any piece of equipment at focus, gaining an additional 2.5 inches of back-focus if needed. Some of you know that I've had these optics since about 1986, the Sonotube has been hanging in my garage since 1991. This project is long overdue and I almost can't believe that it's finally off and running, but with only 2 house payments left, it's time. My goal is to have it operational in Alt-Az mode this coming summer, and equatorial mode by summer 2008. I'm leaning toward a split-ring for the portable equatorial mount, but eventually it will be used on a Babcock single-arm equatorial fork in my "retirement" observatory- thus the reason for the robust tube construction. You just can't hang much equipment on a portable truss-type Dob. I bought the last set of mount castings from Greg Babcock some years ago, my fellow old-timers will remember Greg's ads in S&T in the '70's. I'll post photos of the massive aluminum castings soon. This was and still is one of the coolest mounts I've ever seen. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com