Rock on! I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. I have several of the books on building a Dobsonian Telescope. needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. If the telescope rotates forward or backward on its own, then the mirror box is too deep or too shallow. My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. pageTracker._trackPageview(); Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more. PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. 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. The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. This is the first telescope that I have built. I want to put my 12.5 mirror in a collapsible structure so I can haul it easy, Say a truss tube design, 7 years ago 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. 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. 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. If you connect the 12V power with the barrel connector (right side of photo), the Nano should light up without the USB connection. Finally, I glued a strip of Ebony Star laminante to the curves edge of each side bearing using contact cement, using a flush edge bit on a router to bring the edge of the laminate even with the edge of the wood after the cement had set. It may need some careful coaxing with a screwdriver. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. 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. It took yet another call a week later for the items to actually be mailed. Measure the diameter of the exposed shaft. I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. the bearings, totally eliminating any flex. If you want a Crayford focuser with a knob instead of turning the draw tube, then Jerry Oltion's designhttp://www.jerryoltixycrayfords.htm using box frames and knitting needle drive shafts is also a fairly easy build. The project creator Robert Brown made a good video on testing the board. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. I built mine entirely from CNC-cut plywood, and fastened it together with 2 bolts. 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. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. To make the hole for the focuser, I used the focuser tube to mark a circle in the shroud. Best Wishes, Reply I feel it is a wonderful thing to free oneself from the "store-bought" world, as Tombaugh did, and to use your imagination and skills to develop your own, personal way of viewing the sky. I had initially allowed for more of a gap, but realized once I cut the pieces and held the tube inside them that my gap was too large. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. by cranking The focuser shaft on the telescope is 13.1mm in diameter. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. 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. Meade Zero Image-Shift Electronic Micro-Focuser This high precision focuser allows you to obtain an extremely accurate image focus. You should now be able to drill the 4 holes at each corner. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. i am not trying to win this contest with photos. Those are the last screws to be tightened. I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. on Introduction. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . The project took several months off and on to complete, although a skilled Maker could put a similar one together in a few weeks. Just as it was about to come into focus, the focuser bottomed out. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. I marked the spot and moved things back inside to install the mirror. try { The wood would cost the same, as would pretty much everything except the mirror, so why not spend a little more on the mirror and go BIG. It uses a primary mirror to capture and reflect light, a secondary mirror to direct light into an eyepiece, and a focuser to make fine adjustments for viewing. (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.) Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). I set things up in daylight and collimated the scope. They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. I wasn't there so i can be 100% but i do not think my friend was lying to me and i believe the pictures are from my telescope my kids use it for stargazing a lot i have seen some deepspace but i use it mainly for sketching the moon and i like to view solar flares. The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. That way you won't be dropping your drawtube and 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. Before you do this, the stepper motor will probably move, but it will make a 'stuttering' sound instead of moving smoothly. really stiff and light for their size, and even though a #2 is pretty Nice work and great instructable! The rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. Download and check them out, I just grabbed the first one and printed it. Sonotube (14 inch diameter, 12 feet long): $70, Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139, Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700. You need to order it sized for your focuser shaft size. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! Share it with us! my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. You can see that my Moonlite focuser was slightly larger than the sides of the tube. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . Knitting needles are If you found some good surplus lenses, you will have made a stunningly good objective for your scope. They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. They're fairly I told them to take their time and get it right. I also wanted to buy the other mechanical partsmirror cell, spider, secondary holder, and focuserso that the performance of these pieces was not limited by my skills. I decided to order an aluminum mirror cell from University Optics instead so that the mirror could be supported at 9 different points. DO NOT drill out the holes in the board! I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! On that noteWARNING:do not look directly into the sun and never point a telescope into the sun without proper filtration you can damage your telescope and burn your retinas and possibly go blind i am not a astrophotographer so i cant comment on the quality of the pictures since there is so much doubt on the photos i will gladly take them down. The plastic will ride on teflon pads, creating just enough traction for the telescope to avoid sliding on its own while not making it too difficult to point at things in the sky. It's easy to shim it to exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube until a 2" eyepiece or 1.25" adapter is snug. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. Look down through the empty focuser. Rather than use a sheet of plastic Kydex to finish the tube, as recommended in K/B, I ordered a sheet of birch veneer. homemade Crayford focuser. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! . I decided to use baltic birch because it is recommended by Kriege and Berry as well as many online sources. I laughed, packed up the cell with a long letter describing the series of events that led to the return, and put it in the mail. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". I will post the pic of final focuser once ready. The hole did need to be enlarged slightly by moving the bit within the hole , but in the end, the fit seems right. Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope. Download and unzip. curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. This motor is available on Amazon. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. I wanted a tight / press fit, so I only added half that, 0.25mm. I wanted to wrap the tube in veneer because I had seen a homemade telescope on a website that used veneer and I liked the look. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). This scope was originally made as a travel scope using an eight inch mirror that I ground and polished at the St Pete Astronomy Clubs Mirror Lab. accessible by all ages and skill ranges. We were careful to press out any bubbles as we went, but when the job was done we found that there were multiple bubbles in the veneer. The 2-1.25" adapter is a sink drain slip fitting in 1-1/4" size that slips into the large tube for 1.25 EP's. A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. Put it all together All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. As the authors describe the benefits of a truss design, it is hard to dispute their arguments. I am a retired USAF electronics engineer, and might even do much of the construction of the base with welded structural tubing, as, I do have a complete metal working shop besides my wood shop, here. (A badly tilted focuser may subtly alter the illumination pattern of the focal plane to a degree that would be impossible to perceive visually but that's about it.) Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). Read the documentation though, there are a lot of functions and options. weight. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches). I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. I tried this one first and found it wouldn't work for my application. Using a compass I drew circles on the top and bottom of the ground board to mark the inside and outside of the teflon ring on the bottom of the rocker bottom. This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. I attached three feet equally spaced on top of the ring, and on the opposite side attached teflon pads 1 X 1 directly above the feet using very small brads and countersinking the brads below the surface of the teflon. You will look through these as you rotate the wheel. After cutting the circles for the side bearings, I set up the jig to cut the curved edges of the rocker sides. 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. In scaling up the K/B 8 inch design, I made a few changes that, I hope, will improve the design for 12.5 inch aperture. Picture of DS-4. Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. Once Id built a CNC router, I embarked on my third telescope, featuring a 16 primary mirror with aluminum trusses, wide vertical bearing arcs, a steel front-adjustable mirror cell, and a rotating base. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. Thanks again for the 'ible. That is dirt cheap compared to the cost of commercially available focusers, which can top $1000 and are much heavier than what we will build. 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. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. 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. In order to check your measurements, you can construct jigs for your mirror cell and secondary cage, positioning them on a straight, adjustable track such as 2 planks of wood. This arrangement turns 100% true, no wobble. The secondary holder is adjustable, so I could didn't have to get the location perfect. 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. When you add the minimum distance from the eyepiece to the secondary mirror together with the distance from the secondary mirror to the primary, the total length should be the primary mirrors focal length. 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. Drill the holes for the knitting I started by trying to drill out a metal gear for the focuser shaft. The premier publication of maker projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews, and inspirational stories, On the bottom of the Bottom board is a ring of Ebony Star laminate that glides over the three teflon pads located directly above the feet on the ground board. It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. I even began taking careful notes about needed supplies and plans for each piece of the truss tube scope. It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. Several of my Recent Images have been focused with this system. Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. But let me see what items I can arrange to make a helical. To test the concept I used a short piece of two inch PVC for the draw tube. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. I drew a guide line straight down the side of the tube and cut the veneer to length with one extra inch on each side68 inches long. I was certain not to move the jig at all before cutting the second circle. I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. Or rather, I hated it. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular Similar photos at http://www.telescopegeek.com/gallery.htm require 100+ minute exposure times on his 20" telescope and $3200 camera. It was easy enough to drill a hole and tap threads for a The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. My newtonian telescope, like most others, came fitted with a nasty rack and pinion focuser. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". This one is based on the DRV8825 driver chip and a NEMA-17 stepper motor. I knew that I would be returning the mirror cell to them, but just for fun I decided to see how it would fit in the tube. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! I bought a 4" PVC Sewer pipe cap, used a hole saw to cut a 2.25" hole then attached the helical thing to the PVC cap.
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