A Convenient Mirror Mount
Roberto Garza
When I built my lightweight Dobsonian telescope, I decided to mount the mirror so that it would be easy to collimate and to remove from the lower box. The following diagrams show how it was put together. The beauty of this design is that when you clean the primary mirror, you can easily remove the entire assembly, but not have to do a complete recollimation. Only some fine adjustment may be necessary. The collimation wing nuts are set into openings in the bottom of the mirror box. This assembly is for a 10-inch mirror, but the design can be sized for all mirrors. (The diagrams are not exactly to scale.) The eccentric assembly keeps the mirror from falling out of the cell and the wooden dowel (ex-broomhandle) with offset hole allows gentle pressure against the edge of the mirror to prevent side-to-side movement. The back of the mirror is supported by three flotation triangles riding on acorn nuts. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let the diagrams do the rest of the explaining.
