It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. The focuser is very smooth. How to make diy focuser pvc - YouTube In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. The extra force will also Having an RS trade counter 2 miles away is such a luxury! Yet I was also becoming infected with aperture fever. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. Or rather, I hated it. installations. Slide the eyepiece into the focuser and try it out. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. 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. This cost around $100 to build and all of the components came from Jaycar, except the brackets which were made with 1.2mm sheet metal. The core of the telescope, the steel mirror cell holds and adjusts the heavy, curved primary mirror. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. Start with the small components first. I do have another tube that can be used around the drawtube, but it doesn't really add anything. As the authors describe the benefits of a truss design, it is hard to dispute their arguments. Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. 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. Deep space photos like these require HOURS of exposure for each one. The bearings only need to be This software creates a model of your telescope by measuring out of focus star sizes at various points. Some of these are essential for the basic functionalities of our websites. 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. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus Your astrophotographer friend may have included his own images from his setup. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. 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. Featured in the February, 2015 issue of Sky & Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project - focusing is now a joy. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. Similar photos at http://www.telescopegeek.com/gallery.htm require 100+ minute exposure times on his 20" telescope and $3200 camera. 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. how much travel you actually need, you can cut the tube off so none of It took yet another call a week later for the items to actually be mailed. 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. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart 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. Coupler for NEMA-17 Stepper Motor (also two choices, see below), LM7808 Voltage Regulator with TO-220 package -, Mini On/Off 3-pin 2-position slide switch -, Headers and wire (miscellaneous sizes and gauges), these are important so you can replace the component if it is damaged, LM7808 voltage regulator w/TO-220 heat sink package, 2-pin headers for 12V power and on/off switch. Next step, before my first acquisition of any parts, is to get with any amateur astronomers in Central Florida, so, wish me luck! var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); really stiff and light for their size, and even though a #2 is pretty I started by trying to drill out a metal gear for the focuser shaft. For my project I needed a 14 inch diameter, and I had a tough time finding one. To cut the circles, I used a router with a straight cutting bit and a circle cutting jig. I am using scrap upvc pipe material. Helical is one of the option i am considering. So, for my telescope I used a 6mm to 5mm coupler available on Amazon. I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. That helps with low-profile Put it all together the drive shaft close against the drawtube. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. Orion Telescope Focusers | Buy Direct and Save! I file a dispute with Paypal to begin the process of getting my money back. My newtonian telescope, like most others, came fitted with a nasty rack and pinion focuser. astronowanabe, Pierre Lemay, LarsMalmgren and. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". Thank you for your pages. I told them I was on my way. Move the jigs until you can comfortably place a variety of eyepieces in the focuser and get a sharp image, then carefully measure the separation distances. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. Attach the ball head to the top board. 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. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. 100A81BF-2145-44D5-BC76-66DBF43BAD58.jpeg. I had considered using a clear finish alone, but decided to use a dark red finish on the base and a clear finish on the tube, just because I like the look. This cost around $100 to build and all of the components came from. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! My secondary is 4; for tips on choosing size, click here. I would love to see your build when you are finished with it . the bearings right at the edge of the frame, reducing the frame to Pretty dry but important! I told them to take their time and get it right. Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. 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. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. I did not glue the bearings to the tube box in case I needed to adjust the position later. I do it with aluminium alloy, aluminium tube and nice work. the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how 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. The project took several months off and on to complete, although a skilled Maker could put a similar one together in a few weeks. I built a second set of electronics, and I had the NEMA 17 Direct Drive motor left over since it didn't work for my Orion ED80T-CF refractor. More Homemade Refractor Telescope DIY Erecting Prism Binoviewer Focuser here: Did you make this project? Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. 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. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. With Simple | Space a 3/4" thickness. 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. needle to be just a little too flexible for the weight of a diagonal and 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. If you wanted to really go low-profile with this design, This can be shimmed out with paper wrapped around the An Altitude Azimuth mount would also require a field rotator.There's no way these were taken with an Orion GoTo Mount. They're fairly I'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. We use cookies to continuously improve our websites for you and optimize its design and customization. This is where you will use screws to strongly attach the focuser onto the tube. By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. Thanks for your article. Homemade astronomy. They eyepiece height ended up being about 5'10" high at zenith. The hole did need to be enlarged slightly by moving the bit within the hole , but in the end, the fit seems right. the nylon screws going up from the bottom, but I found the knitting Did you make this project? Share it with us! Rather than use a sheet of plastic Kydex to finish the tube, as recommended in K/B, I ordered a sheet of birch veneer. If not, you may need to design and print your own bracket(s), gears, and so on. To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. Some quick tips to note if you are making a homemade telescope are: 1. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. The kit just contains the electronics - it is up to the user to find a stepper motor and attach it to their own telescope focuser. Sew the seam, and sew an elastic cord into the top to secure it to the secondary cage. Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine today, Community access, print, and digital Magazine, and more. I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. 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. Also no obvious diffraction spikes in the m31 photo. Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. Plus it comes in black, so Post 10 of the same LSDF focuser thread also links to Art Bianconi's archived 2008 original flush valve focuser posts. I found a used 16 primary on eBay. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in While I applaud your building of a homemade Dob, (giving you the FULL benefit of the doubt here) your "friend" has provided photographs that make it look like you're trying to win by cheating. my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . 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. I would also like to know about how you can take such fantastic pictures without a field rotator and an autoguider system. Dozens of projects in every issue covering electronics, craft, fabrication, and more, Learn tips and skill-building tutorials from experts in the maker community. 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. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". Did you make this project? While round tubing is sturdy, square tubing is easier to work with. accessible by all ages and skill ranges. pageTracker._trackPageview(); I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. The diameter of the focuser is usually indicated in inches. 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. Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). knitting needle where it goes through the hole, so it's not a big deal, Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - DIY Craford Focuser - Google I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. It was easy enough to drill a hole and tap threads for a My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. Just as it was about to come into focus, the focuser bottomed out. Share it with us! 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock, http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255. but try for a snug fit if you can. work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford I set things up in daylight and collimated the scope. 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. I told them to take their time and get it right. Edited by Pierre Lemay, 25 May 2020 - 08:10 AM. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. scope, I only put knobs on the outsides. Maker-written books designed to inform and delight! After the glue dried but before the clamps were removed, I added corner braces to all four corners of the tube using glue and brads to hold them in place. 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. Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. I marked the expected position of the secondary by measuring 61 inches down from the end of the tube. Made of plywood, the rocker box supports the mirror box on 1 teflon pads, allowing it to rotate vertically. 10 years ago Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). I even began taking careful notes about needed supplies and plans for each piece of the truss tube scope. both sides. Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. 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. Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! 11 years ago Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - 14 inch dob - Google 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. Wooden Telescope Part 2: Tube and Mount - Instructables Once your telescope is assembled, drape black woven velveteen around the truss assembly, clipping it with safety pins. Share it with us! This is the mirror box for my 16", with Jim doing a bit of cleanup sanding. an eyepiece. spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.) 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 . The drawings are only approximately to scale. curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. They said they would make the brackets extra long to accommodate the mirror and it would take about a week. 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. 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 Focuser and other items: (Scope Stuff). Among amateur telescopes, the most common are focusers with landing diameters of 1.25 ", 2", rarely 0.965 ", and even less often - 3". 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. The ARtemis module came in a kit form actually just two circuit boards one of which I had to source the parts, build and box myself. 11 years ago Sh2-169 and Sh2-168, IC5146 Cocoon Nebula, Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125. Unfortunately I don't have a 3d printer. I really had to, since the underside of my telescope's focuser is all curves, no flat area for attaching the mounting bracket. I tried to call, but the voice mail had a recording stating that the customer was unable to receive messages. "); 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. 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. 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. Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. 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. For about $3 we can buy a tank valve kit that has a threaded 2" i.d. a "rubbery" feel. Thicker knitting needles would be even To get a slide-fit in a 3D printed part, you normally make the hole 0.5mm larger than the shaft. needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without focuser. PVC pipe makes great drawtubes. If your optical train is heavy and the focuser has to bear it (see above) then this motor may be a better choice. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. I 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. I had already made a lightweight focuser for We are now ready for some testing. 1N5408 3A Diode (you may need to make the pins smaller to fit through the holes in the board. Be creative! I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece A free program that lights childrens creative fires and allows them to explore projects in areas such as arts &