I got this great little proto-type scope last year. It has been an incredible little instrument to say the least. It is a 102mm f/7 achromatic refractor and originally came with a less than acceptable 2″ rack and pinion focuser. However, the optics are incredible! Over the past year this OTA has wowed many people and took a lot of rough handling. It has been a real trooper.

Fresh out of the box.

My son, Stephen, has been using it for imaging and the focuser was giving us both fits. It was just not capable of reaching or holding a good focus. The lens was too precise and the low quality rack and pinion focuser just was not up to the quality of the lens. So, I grabbed a really nice two speed focuser off of the shelf and decided that it was time for an upgrade.

On the Mini Tower

First, I dismantled everything. I then made up the adapter assembly to allow this high quality focuser to be mounted to the OTA. When I was getting ready to put things together I took notice of just how badly the paint had been scratched, so, I decided to paint the OTA. I WAS just going to go with the same white that was the original color. However, I’ve had this Kameleon paint sitting around from another job and it was just screaming to be used. The more I thought about it the more I liked it.

The original paint was very well bonded to the metal so I used it as a base for the primer coat. Of course, since the original was a rough and textured finish, I decided to sand it smooth. That was easy. Then began the process of laying down the primer, wet sanding, more primer, wet sand again, fill the small small scratches, wet sand, primer, wet sand and on and on until the base was the way I wanted it to be. I decided it would be much nicer for the adapter to match the OTA instead of just painting it a gloss black. So, that too went through the process of primer, wet sand, etc.

The color coat went on well. Several coats provided the depth and color shift that I wanted. Once that was dry then came the top coats. After the first few coats went on I needed to wet sand it with a 1500 grit paper, let it dry and shoot some more. I repeated this process for at least 8 coats. The final coat came out just fine so I stopped with that one. The finder OTA was also done at the same time. However, with the accuracy of the Mini Tower upon which this is so often used, the finder has not been used in a long time. Therefore, I’ve not mounted it on the main tube, yet.

Once everything was finished all that was needed was to reassemble everything. I cleaned all of the threads on the OTA and lens cell. Stephen cleaned the main lens and all went together without a hitch. I’m quite pleased with the results.

New paint

New paint - 2

New paint - 3

I think it looks great and the color shift is something to behold. It really is stunning in the sunlight. The Kameleon paint shifts colors as the light angle changes and no two paint jobs are every exactly the same. Photographs just cannot do this paint justice. Kameleon paint is not cheap. In fact, this is about $300.00 worth of paint! Still I like it and it makes the scope a true one of a kind OTA. I hope that everyone likes the way this turned out.

Let me know what you think.

Clear skies,

Steve