installations. I hate focusing. This is the mirror box for my 16", with Jim doing a bit of cleanup sanding. Make an account on JLCPCB.com, upload the Gerber zip file, that's it! This one is based on the DRV8825 driver chip and a NEMA-17 stepper motor. Connect the Arduino USB cable and upload some test sketches. Before attaching the sides and front to the bottom with wood screws, I wanted to make sure those screws would not interfere with the Ebony Star ring that would be attached to the rocker bottom. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. The scope including the optics, truss tubes, and eye pieces all stored in a single box making it easy to store and transport by car, but it was a little too big to fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat on most aircraft. Attach the eye piece to another cardboard piece and pass it through the hole from the inside of the tube. What materials did you use? I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. Participated in the Celestron Space Challenge. I found a used 16 primary on eBay. Below are cutting diagrams and diagrams of the rocker and tube box with side bearings. 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. Share it with us! Featured in the February, 2015 issue of Sky & Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. small, it's surprisingly rigid. The cost is a bit more than some of the other combinations, but by only $10 or $20. Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. I was finishing this inner debate when I got a copy of the book The Dobsonian Telescope by Kriege and Berry as a Christmas gift. These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. Because mirror flexure can distort an image, supporting the mirror properly involves building a flotation cell. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. To glue the side bearings and rocker sides to full thickness, I covered a side with wood glue, then carefully lined up the pieces and put two small nails into the pieces to hold them in place. I decided that my best option was to scale up their 8 inch design for a 12.5 inch scope and sacrifice the portability and easier storage of a truss scope for something that I felt confident in building myself. Dobsonians come in all shapes and sizes, from small 4-8 builds all the way up to massive 24-36 creations. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. In my build, the minimum eyepiece-to-secondary mirror distance (13) plus the primary-to-secondary mirror distance (57) equals the focal length of 71, which is roughly 4.5 times the width of the 16 mirror. knob, and a drill press to make sure the hole for the knitting needle ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. These have slop as you change direction, you can't do fine adjustments, they weigh a ton, and can flex alarmingly over time. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. And, once your telescope is finished, be sure to join a local astronomy club to learn more about the sky and share your hobby with others. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. This can be shimmed out with paper wrapped around the drneilmb, thanks for sharing the focuser design. 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. 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. A neet site: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/CAMERAS.HTM Cool instructable, Dude! Here we see the following components installed: Notice we are NOT populating the parts of the board intended for Wifi or BLED. This motor is available on Amazon. This resulted in a gear that wasn't true and "wobbled" a bit. Telescope Magazine. Bore out some 2.5 inch bar and mill a flat down the side making sure it is lined up. I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). As the authors describe the benefits of a truss design, it is hard to dispute their arguments. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. My concern turned to alarm when my wife told me that Discovery had charged the balance due on all items to my account a few weeks earlier. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. case you need more focuser travel than you thought. Before finishing the tube with a wrap of veneer, I wanted to make sure that the primary was in the correct position. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. 11 years ago The specific hardware used for this is described on the Building page. 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. Drill the holes for the knitting I did find, though, that the 3D printed gear would slip on the shaft, so it needed a set screw. They're fairly If you are (for example) doing a focuser for a catadioptric telescope like a Celestron C-8 or similar, the focus knob has no load on it so this smaller, lighter motor will do the trick. The base of the telescope should be a wide, sturdy square or circle of wood with teflon bearing pads matched to the ABS plastic ring of the rocker box. I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. on Step 1, Richards in our local astronomy club. This is the first telescope that I have built. If you connect the 12V power with the barrel connector (right side of photo), the Nano should light up without the USB connection. I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6" F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. My concern turned to alarm when my wife told me that Discovery had charged the balance due on all items to my account a few weeks earlier. rod for the drive axle it would have a fairly fine motion. The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. forces the knitting needle against the drawtube and the drawtube against experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a on Introduction. until a 2" eyepiece or 1.25" adapter is snug. Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. You simply glue or screw the 'nut' part to your scope OTA, and thread the tube part in/out to focus. stronger, but would give me a coarser focus action because of their You currently have javascript disabled. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. larger diameter. Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. PVC pipe makes great drawtubes. pageTracker._trackPageview(); I built mine entirely from CNC-cut plywood, and fastened it together with 2 bolts. Thanks Bob. Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. I used a hole saw to cut a wooden plug to fit inside the 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. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. Thanks for your article. Today I purchased what is called atank nipple in India. Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). His passion is using CAD design and his homemade CNC router to bring large wood projects to life. You need a drawtube of course. Just to make sure I liked the stain, I applied some to a piece of scrap wood. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. Having an RS trade counter 2 miles away is such a luxury! So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. Homemade astronomy. Brandon Lawler is a hobbyist telescope Maker and an active member of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. widening the hole. and an eyepiece. See captioned photos 22-25 here:https://www.cloudyniractor-focuser/ for more detail on building a flush valve focuser, as Bob mentions. A few months later I ordered some other things from Scopestuff, including strips of Ebony Star laminate for the side bearings, a ring of Ebony Star for the rocker bottom, a strip of teflon to cut pieces for the ground board and side bearings, and a new base for my Telrad finder. 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. The flat wants to be running parallel to the long axis of the tube. I didn't bother reading his whole article to figure out what f/# he used) I am not trying to say that good AP isn't possible with a sonotube scope, (the 'friend' may very well have pulled it out of the dob mount, added rings and a dovetail, and mounted it on his CGE-Pro or comparable) but in this case it is unlikely.". But, especially on cold evenings, the focus may go out in the middle of the night. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. I only use the OTA. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. I read the entire thread and surely its going to help me building my focuser. We then spread contact cement over the remaining veneer and tube surface, waited for the glue to dry, and carefully rolled the tube over the veneer. Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. 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 I do it with aluminium alloy, aluminium tube and nice work. 4 years ago Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). You need to order it sized for your focuser shaft size. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat The arc at the top of the sides needed to have a radius 1/8 inch larger than that of the side bearings to account for the thickness of the teflon pads that would fit between. I described it two years ago in this thread:https://www.cloudyniuser/?p=8879835 . 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. too far. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. Someone is pulling someone's leg here. 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. LVLaserTech is right please do not vote for the pictures my instructable is for the build of the telescope not the quality of the photos.and as i said before i was not there is there a possibility that he sent me the wrong photos sure is there a possibility that he used a different mount than the one i saw sure is there a possibility that he is lying to me me about what he did sure. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. Im sorry to hear you couldn't make the contest. Place the focuser, draw the position of the screws with a pencil and remove the focuser. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. Picture of DS-4. : "http://www. The only thing on the list that was a bit difficult to find was baltic birch plywood, which had to be special ordered from the lumber yard. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. Helicals are adaptable to both refractors and reflectors, but do not "play nice" with zoom eyepieces because "zooming" becomes a two handed operation to avoid changing focus. 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. The arc at the top of the sides needed to have a radius 1/8 inch larger than that of the side bearings to account for the thickness of the teflon pads that would fit between.