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I am only a teenager, but even still, in my young age I have back trouble. Bending over a telescope all night long is not something I enjoy doing and neither is sitting at the scope. On average I do not spend numerous amounts of time at the eyepiece per object; I'm there and then I leave which definately does not call for a chair since I'm constantly in motion. The new telescope had to be designed so that I could stand and have the eyepiece be at eyelevel, not down at my knees (big exaggeration) like with commercial Dobsonians.
Due to the nature of the base being so very large (as tall as those bases found on 16" Dobs) it became ackward and heavy. The telescope would see little use being so unwieldly. Yet another bright idea came to my father and I while pondering how to combat this problem.
The base would need to come apart and be able to be put back together and still stay rigid. By allowing the base to be held together by two hand-screws and two window clasps, we did exactly that. When completely apart (say for packing it up in the motor home) it can lay flat and take up no more space than a couple sleeping bags.
When it is time to assemble the base before observing, it takes three trips to get everything outside (usually that is one more than what users of commercial dobs make). The groundboard is then layed on the ground and the remaining pieces of the rockerbox are placed in their aluminum rails. Once everything is in place, two hand screws are screwed through the two side-boards and into the front board. That in turn fastens the top of the base and by tightening two window clasps, one on each side board, the bottom of the base is fastened down.
The base is as rigid as any other Dobsonian and yet comes apart for transportation! Truelly the biggest innovation on the scope!
Click on the following thumbnails for an idea of how the base works:
The groundboard prior to assembly for observing.
Tighten the hand-screw (shown) and the top of the base is now rigid.
Tighten the window-clasp (shown) and the bottom becomes rigid.