Wooden Telescope Part 2: Tube and Mount - Instructables Some quick tips to note if you are making a homemade telescope are: 1. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. Sh2-169 and Sh2-168, IC5146 Cocoon Nebula, Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125. work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. Similar photos at http://www.telescopegeek.com/gallery.htm require 100+ minute exposure times on his 20" telescope and $3200 camera. This was to allow the circle cutting jig to be attached to the board to cut the arcs from a center point of 25 inches above the ground. The version number "312" here may change if Robert posts new firmware. This might have been tempting if I wanted to build a 6 inch scopeat that size, they say that first-timers do pretty well at grinding and figuring their own optics. I phoned in the order in the last week of February and was told that it would take about 4 weeks to deliver the mirror. You should watch (and bookmark) this video. I placed my telrad, optical finder, and an eyepiece on the focuser end of the tube and, using a broomstick as a balance point, found that the tube balanced 22 inches from the bottom. The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. Those are the last screws to be tightened. It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. This motor has a larger shaft diameter (8mm) and is quite a bit heavier overall than the direct drive motor, mainly because of the gearbox. Im quite happy with the result, and the view in its large mirror is phenomenal. Best Wishes, Reply So I was looking for a cheap, light-but-sturdy design for a Homemade DIY focuser for telescope with computer control - NEUTRAL.org It's the same in form, but has a perfect, true 13.35mm hole. the side of a rigid secondary cage. Ask Question Step 5: Stepper Motor Choice #2 - NEMA-17 Geared Stepper Motor If your optical train is heavy and the focuser has to bear it (see above) then this motor may be a better choice. After you've done that, put a couple of tiny pan-head screws the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". I like the old way of using stepper motors and other stuff introduced years ago by Mel Bartels, he is a master for me. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. Perfect for visual observations with very heavy mirrors. If the telescope rotates forward or backward on its own, then the mirror box is too deep or too shallow. Also, I will work with my computer geek buddies, so that we eventually automate it using Linux on a Rock64, to run kstars for tracking, on INDI. I file a dispute with Paypal to begin the process of getting my money back. Thank you for your pages. Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. - Bill. I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. Using heavy grit sandpaper I brought back the surface of the keeper enough for the side bearings to fit inside the felt pads. Although they don't usually sell these parts, because I had ordered the mirrors from them they offered to sell me the spider and secondary holder that they use in their scopes. Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. Likewise, the side bearings are made of two identical semicircles of 5/8 inch plywood glued together, creating side bearings that are 1 inches thick. It is not very powerful, it will not supply enough torque if you put any load on it or have a heavy optical train (like I do) and the focuser has to "pull" it upward when the telescope is vertical. Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - Udder Nonsense - Google Once you get it working, there's some calibration you need to do. The mirror box encloses the mirror cell and allows the entire telescope to rotate vertically. Link to the motor speed controller kit:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KC5225(a 5K external potentiometer will be required): http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=RP3508The drive motor:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=YG2734The gears:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=YG2736The motor forward/reverse switch:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ST0506The push button:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SP0711 However more than the focuser, I liked your scope. Slewing to find an object and then tracking an object on the sky, so when you make a homemade telescope on the motorisation process you will need high speed for slewing and low speed for tracking or fine movements. You can view and download the full file here. A homemade 16 inch dob lightweight telescope, DS-4 - XMission It take automatic control of the CCD camera and focuser, and dances around magically on the screen, arriving at perfect focus within about 30s to 3 minutes depending on where you started from. I used one of the top scraps from the rocker sides to mark an angle of 70 degrees from the center of the arc to the curved cut in order to properly space 1 X 7/8 teflon pads on the arcs. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. One of the neat things about the square design is that the I made a similar helical focuser with a nice 2 inch thing I found in Classifieds. After a dry fit of the rocker to make sure that the tube box with side bearings would fit well, I glued the rocker sides to the rocker front, holding them in place with small nails and clamping overnight. Until I see photos of this scope setup for these pictures and an explanation of the exact equipment used, I cannot believe that these pictures were taken with this OTA. As the telescope tilts toward the horizon, the mirror must be supported on its edge. The pivot bolt consists of a 1 1/8 inch brass spacer with an 11/16 inch outer diameter, a 3/8 inch bolt 2 inches long, a stop nut, and two large washers. The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. Community Forum Software by IP.BoardLicensed to: Cloudy Nights. A 10 inch scope would not be very much longer or heavier than my 6 inch, yet it would allow me to see much more. PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). Drawing lines between opposite corners of the tube box sides allowed me to locate the center point on each side. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. The focuser is very smooth. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. was straight so I wouldn't get a wobbly knob. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. The cage should be a hollow cylinder about wider than the mirror, with the focuser mounted directly facing the secondary mirror. Realizing that it could not be the University Optics cell already, I thought, Noit couldn't be but, in fact, it was. Dozens of projects in every issue covering electronics, craft, fabrication, and more, Learn tips and skill-building tutorials from experts in the maker community. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. The mirror itself must also be able to tilt in three dimensions in order to aim its light at the secondary mirror (a process called collimation). OK, no, I do not have a homemade Crayford focuser but am planning to build a 3 incher for next years 17" reflector telescope project and to hold my new 30mm ES 100 degree EP. The silly colours are mainly due to me experimenting with various clothes dyes in the anodising. Low, or Zero slop when changing direction. This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). Whether you need a basic rack-and-pinion telescope focuser for your homemade telescope project or a premium Crayford-type model with dual-speed focusing as a performance upgrade, you have come to the right place. Instead of the rack and pinion, they have a smooth spring-loaded shaft which holds the focus tube against four opposing bearing surfaces, and controls its movement. Gift the gift of Make: Magazine this holiday season! This consists of a small black box of electronics. he might just have a $3200 camera, they aren't very hard to come by. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. Rather than use a sheet of plastic Kydex to finish the tube, as recommended in K/B, I ordered a sheet of birch veneer. All in all it seemed like a pretty robust design, so I gave it I sourced my own Stepper motor and 1:150 reduction gearbox from RS, who are just up the road. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube Most people will want a knob on Fire up focusmax, and shoot some images! I want to make this direct drive system work. That's pretty much the focuser. on Introduction. During on-site assembly, attach each truss to its mounting T-nut using a bolt with a thumbscrew knob. How To Build A Dobsonian Telescope [Guide 2022] - DopeGuides Having an RS trade counter 2 miles away is such a luxury! love to hear from people who are interested in this focuser design. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. I took the whole tube assembly outside. pageTracker._trackPageview(); A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! I've been using the above pair with a genuine question or comment about the design. My telescope is the Orion ED80T-CF. This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in At some point in the building process, my goal became to finish the scope by RocheStar Fest, an annual event of the Rochester Astronomy Club. The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. The cost is a bit more than some of the other combinations, but by only $10 or $20. a "rubbery" feel. Once built, line the undersides of the arms with textured ABS plastic as a bearing surface. scope, I only put knobs on the outsides. Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.) It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. The little app is simple and works great. Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. The length of the Rocker Front also had to be changed so that the outside edge of the Side Bearings matched the outside edge of the Rocker Sides precisely. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. This unit takes signals from your computer and drives the stepper motor on the focuser. But who cares, really? By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. To get this arc, I actually moved the radius of the jig, At some point in the building process, my goal became to finish the scope by RocheStar Fest, an annual event of the. This arrangement turns 100% true, no wobble. I'd For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. We tried this in our back yard, but found that it was too difficult to aim both the tube and the moving mirror at distant trees in our suburban yard. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? When the skies were dark enough for observing I found that the scope moves easily into position and holds that position well. The balance point determines the height of the rocker sides, so I had to get this far before I cut the wood for the base. I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. Ideally, the spacer would be 1 inch long and have a smaller diameter, but I didn't get this one right the first time. There was the expense, for one, but also the To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. 4 years ago I was inspired to build telescopes during a trip out to McDonald Observatory in west Texas, where I saw a 36 fork-mounted telescope, tiny in comparison to the huge research telescopes at the site. A project collaboration and documentation platform. My newtonian telescope, like most others, came fitted with a nasty rack and pinion focuser. A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. The next day my wife called me at work to tell me a box had arrived with telescope stuff. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . "https://ssl." Make the hole diameter fairly snug, too. I first tried my 32mm plossl eyepiece. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular This combination has proved to be effective for all positions except when the tube is pointed directly up. I could not find a spacer to fit my 9/16 hole, so I bought the 11/16 spacer (1 1/8 long because that's what the store had) and a bit of the same size. the bearings, totally eliminating any flex. Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. Motorise Your Own Telescope (updated 10-19-2017). - Instructables This book describes in great detail the steps to build a large aperture truss tube dob, focusing on scopes with a 12.5 to 40 inch mirror. This motor is available on Amazon. Given that you can make the drawtube any length you Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). After another 3 weeks, I was concerned that I had not received the mirror. Or rather, I hated it. You won't need to write any sketches from scratch, but you will at least need to figure out how to upload them to the Nano. Using a compass, I drew lines for the inside and outside of the Ebony Star ring on the top and bottom of the rocker bottom. Unbelievable! To hold the tube in place within the tube box, I used a combination of pieces of felt inside the box and wooden shims between the tube and the box. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. You will look through these as you rotate the wheel. Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop Here are a few photos of the "bracket", which is a simple 3D printed plate that mounts to the telescope's focuser ring, and serves as a mount for the stepper motor. In my case I decided to make a custom bracket. It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. My DIY Motorized Telescope Focuser - YouTube Along with some silver bits To cut the circles, I started with a depth of about 1/8 inch, then lowered the bit and cut a little more with each pass until I was through the board. I hate focusing. Use mild soap and distilled . Rock on! What materials did you use? To get a slide-fit in a 3D printed part, you normally make the hole 0.5mm larger than the shaft. small, it's surprisingly rigid. I had considered a Moonlite or Featherlite focuser, but I knew from my experience with my 6 inch scope that I wanted a 2 speed focuser, and the price tag of their 2 speed focusers scared me away. The side bearings are each made from 2 identical semicircles of 5/8 inch plywood glued together to make a thickness of 1 inches. Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. I called to express my concern and was told that it had all been packaged a few weeks ago and that it, For complete instructions on building a telescope such as this one, I strongly recommend buying a copy of, After cutting the circles for the side bearings, I set up the jig to cut the curved edges of the rocker sides. wobbly knob still works, and adds character. Nice one. It took about 3 weeks but, since Anttler's did not even reply to the Paypal dispute, I received a Paypal refund. Nice looking telescope. It was important that the two circles be identical because the edges had to match perfectly when glued together and the two side bearings had to be identical in order for the altitude motion to work well. (The 8 inches from the center of the secondary to the field stop in the focuser is the same 8 inches from the center of the focuser to the top of the tube.) I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. #@$%^#@!!!!! A decent machinest will do a far better job, but, there is always a lot more pleasure to be gained per astrophoto when you make bits yourself. eyepiece on the ground (or worse, on your primary mirror!) We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. I ordered the focuser, received an immediate email confirming the order, and it arrived two days later. The specific hardware used for this is described on the Building page. Here's my 8" f/6 travel scope with a 2" PVC draw tube and the helical Crayford focuser built right in the focuser board. forces the knitting needle against the drawtube and the drawtube against control. together tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators across the globe. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. : "http://www. I did not own all of the tools that I needed for this project, particularly a table saw and router, so I did a lot of work while visiting my Dad. For complete instructions on building a telescope such as this one, I strongly recommend buying a copy of The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege and Richard Berry. I then temporarily installed the secondary mirror so that I could measure the approximate distance to the center of the secondary in order to locate the holes for the focuser. telescope page, I wasn't really eager to buy two commercial Crayford an inch or so apart, so the focuser body could be pretty low profile. Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - Issac Newton Scope - Google i am not trying to win this contest with photos. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. Make an account on JLCPCB.com, upload the Gerber zip file, that's it! I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). Read the documentation though, there are a lot of functions and options. Share a cool tool or product with the community. Share it with us! For the ATMer I do find that there are an endless number of parts that can be designed and printed for home built telescopes and binoscopes. larger diameter. I suppose that one could complete this project without these two tools, but it would be difficult to cut the pieces accurately enough for a good fit. My DIY Motorized Telescope Focuser - YouTube I use a 3D printer and an old gear motor to create an electronic telescope focuser.This is my first attempt at voiceover, I'm using a headset. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal See the images how I plan to assemble it. That helps with low-profile After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how Homemade 12.5 Inch Dobsonian Telescope - Instructables After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. Sew the seam, and sew an elastic cord into the top to secure it to the secondary cage. I applied contact cement to the first inch of the veneer and the mating inch of the tube. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. With the DRV8825 and Arduino Nano plugged in, the basic board is complete. I would also like to know about how you can take such fantastic pictures without a field rotator and an autoguider system. CNC files (optional) Download the Sketchup files. You simply glue or screw the 'nut' part to your scope OTA, and thread the tube part in/out to focus. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. case you need more focuser travel than you thought. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. After waiting for the stain to dry for a day, I applied polyurethane in two coats, going over the surface with 0000 steel wool between coats. The core of the telescope, the steel mirror cell holds and adjusts the heavy, curved primary mirror. It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough After a few weeks of no communication from them, no ability to phone or email them, and no mirror cell arriving. Building the mirror box is tricky, because the entire optical assembly (mirror cell, mirror box, trusses, secondary cage) must balance at the center of rotation of the arms. The heaviest piece is 40 lbs, and the total scope weighs about 60 lbs (not counting the baffle). 7 years ago After looking at many focuser options with a big range of prices, I decided to order a GSO 2 speed Crayford focuser from ScopeStuff. DO NOT drill out the holes in the board! They even offered to send the spider, secondary holder, and secondary mirror immediately so that I could begin working on the tube while I waited for the primary. Other supplies that I bought for this project include wood, various bits of hardware, stain and finishing supplies, and a circle cutting jig for a router. Pretty dry but important! I did run into a small problem with the focuser. After picking up a copy of The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege, I built my first telescope with a 12-diameter mirror, then later tackled a 12 lightweight scope. Telescope Electronic Focuser : 16 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. For about $3 we can buy a tank valve kit that has a threaded 2" i.d. As I continued to read, however, I was struck by the many complications of the design and, frankly, how many ways I could screw it up. I was still doing some construction on the morning of the event, but I succeeded in making first light on that clear, dark night in late July. A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. try { A Beginner's Guide to Collimation - Gary Seronik Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). Several functions may not work. I var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? I call shenanigans on every picture in this post except for the the moon. So, am curious to see what others have designed and built and proud to show off here on the homage to Crayford thread. Lining up this center point with the center of the top of the side bearing, I brought the corner of the side bearing up to the edge of the tube box and attached it with screws. You currently have javascript disabled. Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! This is my copy of the telescope that Sir Isaac Newton presented to the Royal Society of London in 1671, and is considered to be the first successful reflecting telescope. While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. Every primary telescope mirror has a fixed focal length thats usually 4 to 6 times the width of the mirror. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! The base and the rocker box in my telescope are secured with a skate bearing assembly but could be more simply attached with a bolt through the center. I called to express my concern and was told that it had all been packaged a few weeks ago and that it should have been sent. needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); It is used to setup water outlet from overhead water tanks. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139 Ebony star strips: 2 @ $10 Ebony star ring: $59 Teflon strip: $11 Telrad base: $10 Baltic Birch " sheet (60X60): $42 Baltic Birch 5/8" sheet (60X60): $48 Circle cutting jig: $30 Birch Veneer (4X8 piece): $65 Hardware, stain, other supplies: $80 Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700 I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. When you're ready to go on to testing with the windows driver, you want "myFP2_DRV8825_312-1", open that folder. There are sub-folders for the different versions. I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. Be creative! I am thankful to enjoy the inspiration, and the details, that you provide, as I will soon be constructing a Dobsonian Telescope.