Sky and Telescope - May 2017 - 72

ASTRONOMER'S WORKBENCH by Jerry Oltion

Brent's Beauties
I THINK WE WOULD all agree that

the things we look at through our
telescopes are generally beautiful. The
Moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae, galaxies - all provide a sense of
aesthetic pleasure along with their
intellectual attraction. The telescopes
themselves, though, are most often
utilitarian tubes, or even just open
frameworks reminiscent of scaffolding
around an unﬁnished building. They
might be outstanding examples of their
kind, but inherently beautiful? Naaah.
This holds true save for a special
class of scopes that are themselves
works of art. Every now and then you'll
see a telescope that rivals the night
sky itself for its sheer eye-stopping
beauty. Brent Burton has built such an
instrument. Made of several different
species of exotic hardwoods, with an
inlaid dragon swirling up the mount,
this scope is a panacea for cloudy days.
Who cares what's in the sky when this

gorgeous creation is set up right there in
front of you, begging to be admired?
And as if the scope weren't enough,
Brent has built an accessory tray to
match it. Together they rival Saturn as
the main attraction at a star party.
What made Brent decide to build
such a vision? In his own words: "I love
woodworking and I love astronomy.
Seemed like a match made in heaven."
The scope took about a month to
build, working on it every day. The tray
took about as long, mostly in carving the
accessory tray's hand out of ironwood.
He used the project to keep himself busy
when his family was abroad to visit his
in-laws, and their absence helped him
avoid his wife's annoyance at the mess
he was making. Brent reports that "Half
the fun was actually ﬁnding all the right
exotic woods used in the construction of
the scope and learning how to best work
with the wood with the limited tools I
had in my one-car garage."

p The OTA and mount are made with several
exotic hardwoods, including African bubinga,
bloodwood, and various exotic burlwoods.
t Brent Burton with his attractive telescope
and accessory tray.

72

M A Y 2 0 1 7 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

The scope uses an eclectic mix of
spalted curly maple, walnut, western
pine, beefwood, curly Australian eucalyptus, African bubinga, bloodwood, and
various exotic burlwoods. The tray incorporates Samoan iﬁlele, ironwood, curly
maple, African bubinga, and bloodwood.
The inlaid dragon is made of African
bubinga and Amboyna burlwood. To
make it, Brent ﬁrst drew out a pattern,
then cut the inlay on a scroll saw, traced
the shape on the wood to be inlaid and
routed that out with a Dremel tool.
Once he got it to ﬁt well, he glued it in
and sanded ﬂat the inlay. Any gaps he
ﬁlled with wood glue mixed with sanding dust from the inlay wood.
That's the only pattern used on
either the scope or the tray. Brent says,
"A lot of people ask where I got plans
or if I made plans for it before I started.
I've never made plans or ever put much
onto paper before I get started on my
projects. I just think of it in my head,
start building, and make adjustments as
I go to make it work. I actually see them
as mental exercises to get my creative
juices going."
The optics came from a 100-mm
f/4 Orion SkyScanner. Brent took
the primary mirror, mirror cell, and
spider assembly from the old scope and
integrated them into the wood OTA. He
also reused the Teﬂon bearings and the
altitude bearing.
The focuser started from a solid
block of claro walnut hollowed out to
accommodate the metal focuser tube,
bearings, and drive shaft of a standard
Crayford. The end plate is of African
bubinga. Brent reports that "It all works
really well and is as smooth as any
other Crayford I've used."
Brent admits that this scope is more
of a showpiece than an observing scope,
but it does work as well or better than

A LL PHOTOG R A PHS PROVIDED BY BREN T BURTON

Not everything beautiful about astronomy is up in the sky.
Sky and Telescope - May 2017

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