Alliance for Astronomy, Inc.

The optical tube assembly for a 16-in Jones-Bird telescope was donated by Bill Davis (mechanical parts) and Jim Melka (optics) to the Alliance for use at the astronomy center.  A cash grant from the Enterprise Rent-a-Car Foundation was made to install the OTA on a computerized alt-az mounting which was done superbly by Bob Kirschenmann.  The telescope has been installed next to the 80cm telescope at our temporary observatory site.

The telescope has a 40cm (16-in) f/3 spherical primary but a correcting doublet of the Jones-Bird design corrects for spherical aberation and their own chromatic aberation to produce an effective f/5 (2000 mm EFL).  Its compact design is evident in the photos.  Testing on the night sky reveals excellent optical properties and the Go-To / tracking drive is a joy to use.  The scope can also be used in a manual mode without using the motors or digital setting circles.