The story of Eric and Eric and their idea for a telescope company.
The idea for e2 Telescope Design was born at the monthly star party at the observatory on Fremont Peak, California. Dozens of amateur astronomers with an array of telescope designs, sizes and shapes-many of them home-built-were enjoying the dark skies over Northern California.
After looking through a number of different telescopes, they were hooked.
One of the Erics already owned a mass-produced 4.5" equatorial reflector, but its shortcomings had become obvious. The moderate aperture and wobbly mount just weren't enough. He needed something bigger, something better. He took a look at the commercially available Dobs, but many of them had dozens of web sites devoted to how to "fix" the mounts. The rest were prohibitively expensive. So he decided to build it himself.
Unfortunately, he lived in an apartment and had neither the tools, the skills, nor the space to take on such a project. However, the other Eric was an avid woodworker and had just constructed a brand new shop full of the latest tools.
They did some research on the internet and constructed a generic 8" Dobson mount using the standard materials and concepts: cheap plywood sheathing, clunky rockerbox which clamped with wing nuts, and a bolt through the ground board for an azimuth bearing. While the views through the 8" aperture were a huge improvement, the mount was anything but. First off, it was ugly. The wood had already started to swell with moisture and the azimuth "bearing" stuck like crazy and wobbled too. Rebalancing the scope for large eyepieces was a real hassle. They knew they could do better.
Using their engineering backgrounds, they built a computer model, then carefully selected the best materials available to construct a prototype. It was a huge improvement, but it was still too heavy and many of the fine details needed improvement. Their goal was not just to build a large-aperture telescope, but to improve on virtually every aspect of its design. It needed to be light, strong, convenient to transport, and attractive enough to be stored in the home. It needed to have smooth action, top-quality components, and easily collimated mirrors. With these criteria in mind, a new prototype was tested, refined and improved over time.
What has evolved is the e2 family of alt-az. Newtonian reflectors. The roller azimuth bearing with adjustable brake is like nothing else available. The cam lever release for the rockerbox allows the OTA to be easily balanced and rotated. The optimized layout looks great and is far lighter than anything else available.
We enjoy building these scopes and hope you enjoy assembling them and using them. Drop us a line or write us with any questions or comments; we'd love to hear from you.
Eric Albrecht