I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! This is not recommended for shared computers. 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 (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches). To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. 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. ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. 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 Focuser and other items: (Scope Stuff). I used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. Plus it comes in black, so Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality. A smart collection of books, magazines, electronics kits, robots, microcontrollers, tools, supplies, and more A i got a email that someone built a telescope close to mine that has seen the stuff in the photos here is a link to his site http://www.synapticsystems.com/sky/scopes/Dob.htmlif i seem a bit rude please forgive me i just spent 12hrs in a plane i have jetlag and im sitting in a airport.i would like to thank lvlasertech for keeping this instructable lively and informative. Earthbound1 likes this #2 dave brock Mercury-Atlas Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. I used one of these scrap pieces to draw an angle of 70 degrees to the edge of the arc so that I could later place the teflon pads on the arcs. Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. on Introduction. To get this arc, I actually moved the radius of the jig in by 1/8 inch. I described it two years ago in this thread:https://www.cloudyniuser/?p=8879835 . Share it with us! 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. The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. Similar photos at http://www.telescopegeek.com/gallery.htm require 100+ minute exposure times on his 20" telescope and $3200 camera. It may need some careful coaxing with a screwdriver. Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. drneilmb, thanks for sharing the focuser design. More Homemade Refractor Telescope DIY Erecting Prism Binoviewer Focuser here: Did you make this project? ill ask him for a detailed list of what he used and when i get that ill post it here for you. Put it all together crafts, science & engineering, design, and technology. 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. I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6" F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. I have no dog in this hunt whatsoever, but if people are impressed by these photographs and vote for it because of them when there's no proof that this scope generated the photos and there IS data to the contrary (see below), then that's certainly not fair to the other contestants. CNC files (optional) Download the Sketchup files. It just Upload that main sketch to the Nano. And you can tell it's not a mosaic because the stars at the corners show coma/field curvature artifacts. flexing. I drilled holes for the screws that avoided the location of the ring, and attached the rocker bottom. I gave them a call and they said they had one on the shelf14 inches in diameter and 12 feet long! Find a special something for the makers in your life. I decided to keep this tube for now and if I run into problems with it, I can replace it later. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. 4 years ago It was easy enough to drill a hole and tap threads for a The hole did need to be enlarged slightly by moving the bit within the hole , but in the end, the fit seems right. It may take you a while to adjust the image correctly, but it's not hard to do, just time consuming. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. 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. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. Brandon Lawler is a hobbyist telescope Maker and an active member of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. 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. Every primary telescope mirror has a fixed focal length thats usually 4 to 6 times the width of the mirror. 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. I only use the OTA. focusers for that project. stronger, but would give me a coarser focus action because of their To make the hole for the focuser, I used the focuser tube to mark a circle in the shroud. I got no response to phone calls or emails after another week, and decided to wait until the primary would be finished in another two weeks. homemade Crayford focuser. You will look through these as you rotate the wheel. It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. All Dobsonian telescope projects are unique buildshere are the notes from my latest version to help get you familiar with the process and determine how youll design yours. The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. 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. 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. the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". The heaviest piece is 40 lbs, and the total scope weighs about 60 lbs (not counting the baffle). I ordered the focuser, received an immediate email confirming the order, and it arrived two days later. 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. 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. Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. on Step 5, 9 years ago I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. Your design is simple and nice. the bearings right at the edge of the frame, reducing the frame to When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. I have seen some VERY impressive photos similar to those, taken with Nikon D700 and D300 cameras, with the proper filters- and mounts- on a quality scope. You currently have javascript disabled. Carve out a hole on the top part of the sonotube first. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!). In order for the Rocker Box to pivot on the Ground Board, a center pin is placed in a hole at the exact center of the Ground Board and Rocker Bottom. I on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. wobbly knob still works, and adds character. I began building it in the spring of 2008, but the bulk of the work was done in July of 2008 with first light occurring on July 25. telescope page, I wasn't really eager to buy two commercial Crayford off the bearings. (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.) New Creation Tamil 6.96K subscribers Welcome to New Creation Tamil Our Channel include of Guiding Videos: 1.DIY Projects 2.Awesome Ideas 3.Tips You are inter with New Creation Tamil you can enjoy. My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. 11 years ago 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. 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. We all know the problems with focusing. knob, and a drill press to make sure the hole for the knitting needle control. Several of my Recent Images have been focused with this system. These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. Only problem is if I put a diagonal it wants to rotate the helical part. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope. I This software creates a model of your telescope by measuring out of focus star sizes at various points. Pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a Newtonian reflector telescope with a unique two-axis movable base. The next day, I centered the rocker on the rocker bottom (which had been cut using the same method as the side bearing circles), drawing perpendicular lines through the center of the rocker bottom to use as a guide, and tracing the position on the rocker bottom. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. I also doubled the thickness of the rocker sides (not the front wall) to provide better support for the heavier tube. case you need more focuser travel than you thought. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion I call shenanigans on every picture in this post except for the the moon. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in 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. This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. To do this, the mirror cell needs to be supported by 3 large bolts, at least 2 of which are adjustable. By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. As I set of the scope, several club members came over to check things out and it was nice to hear the positive comments on the appearance of the scope. Secondary mirror with spider holder Search on eBay for a matched set. The bearings only need to be In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. Step 4Attaching the Side Bearings and assembling the Rocker. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. Several functions may not work. That helps with low-profile weight. 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. Nice one. 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. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. you could probably space the bearings 3/4" apart instead of 1" and mount The focuser knob had two set screws. You need to order it sized for your focuser shaft size. 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. This unit takes signals from your computer and drives the stepper motor on the focuser. Let me see if I can get similar plumbing parts here. with a genuine question or comment about the design. document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); 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). Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). The drawings are only approximately to scale. 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. 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. 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. Thicker walls also required thicker side bearings so that the outside of the bearings would line up with the outside of the rocker sides. This proved fatal for the stepper motor! corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece Since my plan called for purchasing the mirrors and mechanical parts there were several decisions to be made and several vendors to contact. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. A bit of a monster! I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. If you go to buy all of the components for this project from dealers, you will see that you mostly have to buy at least 5 parts, sometimes bags of 50 parts! It has a 6mm shaft. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. Best Wishes, Reply It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. The box should be deep enough to allow the mirror box to swing all the way down. The email bounced back to me. pageTracker._trackPageview(); The focuser is the part of the telescope that holds the eyepiece or camera, and by moving in or out, closer or farther from the . All in all it seemed like a pretty robust design, so I gave it This means you lose much of the night's images. A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. I centered the focuser 8 inches from the top of the tube, using a 2.5 inch hole drilling saw with smaller holes for the bolts that would hold the focuser. The mirror cell: University Optics (eventually). After going over the surfaces with a tack cloth to pick up the saw dust, I applied the stain and went over it with cheese cloth rags for an even finish. I tried all of my other eyepieces and found that I could bring the image into focus in the other eyepieces, but it was very near the bottom of the focuser travel. However more than the focuser, I liked your scope. This project is based on Robert Brown's "Arduino ASCOM Focuser Pro2 DIY". It is named after the Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society, Crayford, London, England where it was invented by John Wall, a member of the astronomical society which meets there. Have you made any mods on it since you built it? 100A81BF-2145-44D5-BC76-66DBF43BAD58.jpeg. 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. We use cookies to continuously improve our websites for you and optimize its design and customization. Dobsonians come in all shapes and sizes, from small 4-8 builds all the way up to massive 24-36 creations. It takes the unknown out of focusing, and is easy to re-focus between filters, or refocus several times during a long exposure run as the world cools down. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). 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. After the pieces were glued together, I used a belt sander to smooth out any rough edges, being careful to keep both rocker sides and both side bearings exactly the same. 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. Thanks for your article. If not, you may need to design and print your own bracket(s), gears, and so on. DO NOT drill out the holes in the board! larger diameter. Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. 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. Rock Paper Scissors Using Tinkercad Circuits and Arduino, Punchy the MECH & the Autonomous Fight Club, PCB (printed circuit board) - download the, DRV8825 - stepper motor driver chip/board - again, clones available on. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. surfaces to put the bearings in and a vee at the bottom that would hold Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. narrow the frame. Actually getting the parts into my hands turned out to be more of a challenge than I would have expected, but in the end, I have a wonderful telescope that I enjoy very much. 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 last chapter of the book describes a plan for an 8 inch sonotube dob with a few design elements from their truss design, and, as I read that chapter, the simplicity of its construction was very appealing. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. The diameter of the focuser is usually indicated in inches. 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. 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. Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. I called in the order and explained that I would be using a mirror two inches thick. you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). They're fairly 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. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. I decided to order an aluminum mirror cell from University Optics instead so that the mirror could be supported at 9 different points. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. Since my focuser shaft is 6mm, I ordered the coupler shown here in the 6mm to 8mm version from Amazon. 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. And the legs of the base should be as wide as possible to accommodate weight imbalance as the telescope is moved around, to avoid tipping. My other telescope is a Celestron NexStar C6E. I'm only hoping to supplement it a bit with some info and pictures aimed at those with limited skills (such as myself) :-) I'm not an electrical engineer, I'm more of a software guy with some limited knowledge of electronics and basic soldering and assembly skills. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus 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 sides were attached with wood glue and clamps with a few small brads to hold everything in place. I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. Depending on your telescope, one of the Brackets that Robert has may work for you. The holes in the main bracket the match the holes in the plate are oversize to allow for this alignment. 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. Because mirror flexure can distort an image, supporting the mirror properly involves building a flotation cell. Electronics and software automate the process of taking pictures. I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. Concluding that I would not be able to buy a tube off the shelf, I found a couple of companies that took special orders on cardboard tubes. You can view and download the full file here. This is the first telescope that I have built. I added three inches for a margin of error and in case I need to rebalance the tube in the future, making a distance of 25 inches from the balance point of the tube to the rocker bottom. Since there is no drill bit that exactly matches the 13.1mm of the shaft, I had to do some rough enlargement of the hole.

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