Some of the very best planetary and deep sky pics I have seen have come from a Fuji S3 professioanl camera [based on a Nikon body] and a Canon 20Da, which was designed with [I think] a user replaceable inside the mirror box filter for astral photography. It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. While round tubing is sturdy, square tubing is easier to work with. 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. 24 T-nuts, with matching 2 bolts and knobs, 8 Aluminum tubing, thin wall, 1 square, 4 lengths I got mine from Cycle 24, Black woven velveteen, 68 Cut it so it stretches along the 6 axis. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. Or rather, I hated it. I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. 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. In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip". 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. The telescopes size is classified by the size of its mirror. astronowanabe, Pierre Lemay, LarsMalmgren and. I attached small felt pads to the inside of the keepers to protect the side bearings from scratches, but discovered that the side bearings would not fit because of the thickness of the pads. There are sub-folders for the different versions. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. until a 2" eyepiece or 1.25" adapter is snug. 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. 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. Step 4Attaching the Side Bearings and assembling the Rocker. Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. I decided to use baltic birch because it is recommended by Kriege and Berry as well as many online sources. To get this arc, I actually moved the radius of the jig in by 1/8 inch. When you figure out Edited by sunrag, 28 May 2020 - 10:44 PM. His passion is using CAD design and his homemade CNC router to bring large wood projects to life. They eyepiece height ended up being about 5'10" high at zenith. Built one of these http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ working really well only cost less than 40.00. 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. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. I do it with aluminium alloy, aluminium tube and nice work. Plus it comes in black, so They said they would make the brackets extra long to accommodate the mirror and it would take about a week. I got a different stain, tested it, and went back to work. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. 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. small, it's surprisingly rigid. Find a special something for the makers in your life. My newtonian telescope, like most others, came fitted with a nasty rack and pinion focuser. A smart collection of books, magazines, electronics kits, robots, microcontrollers, tools, supplies, and more This focuser (see pic at bottom) was motorised by me several years ago, but the motorised system didn't give me very fine control, and the motor running at fast speed tended to make the Artemis camera crash. This unit takes signals from your computer and drives the stepper motor on the focuser. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. 11 years ago Earthbound1 likes this #2 dave brock Mercury-Atlas I described it two years ago in this thread:https://www.cloudyniuser/?p=8879835 . Remember: It is the quality and SIZE of the capture chip, NOT the megapixels that determines quality. my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't I'm' glad I did, because I didn't like the first color that I had chosen. As the authors describe the benefits of a truss design, it is hard to dispute their arguments. The sides were attached with wood glue and clamps with a few small brads to hold everything in place. My guess is that photo was taken with a refractor. the side of a rigid secondary cage. 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock, http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. 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 used the "LEDandBuzzer" and "TestStepsDRV8825" tests. it sticks into your light path. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. 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. If your optical train is heavy and the focuser has to bear it (see above) then this motor may be a better choice. PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. All i did was supply the telescope as far as his camera equipment i dont know what he used i never saw it all i know is he had my scope for about a month while i was traveling and he gave me these photos. Headers for the LEDs, buzzer (2-pin) and temperature probe (3-pin). I first tried my 32mm plossl eyepiece. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. I set things up in daylight and collimated the scope. $299.99 More About Telescope Focusers 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. It has reminded me of one of my long term aims to make a telescope that has been buried by the demands of the rest of my life! Drawing lines between opposite corners of the tube box sides allowed me to locate the center point on each side. Like i said these are not my photos and i cannot coment on exactly how he set it up as i was not there all i can say is i saw the mount he used when he picked up the telescope. 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. 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. Some quick tips to note if you are making a homemade telescope are: 1. ill ask him for a detailed list of what he used and when i get that ill post it here for you. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". on Step 5, 9 years ago 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 plan to use an FTA over it in case an extension is needed. The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. I I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. Because mirror flexure can distort an image, supporting the mirror properly involves building a flotation cell. I only use the OTA. on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. #2 knitting needle would be just about right. Here we see the following components installed: Notice we are NOT populating the parts of the board intended for Wifi or BLED. I then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement. I file a dispute with Paypal to begin the process of getting my money back. Thanks Pinbout for sharing your design. Very simple and portable. Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. ScopeStuff is awesome!! After looking at many focuser options with a big range of prices, I decided to order a GSO 2 speed Crayford focuser from ScopeStuff. They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. Picture of DS-4. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. The email bounced back to me. 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 first telescope I built was a 10" F8. 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. Fire up focusmax, and shoot some images! forces the knitting needle against the drawtube and the drawtube against Drill the holes for the knitting My wife helped me by moving the mirror into and out of the tube around the marked spot while I stood at the eyepiece trying to bring some distant trees into focus. 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. 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. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. 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 Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. an inch or so apart, so the focuser body could be pretty low profile. This one is based on the DRV8825 driver chip and a NEMA-17 stepper motor. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a 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. Download the Gerber Files. If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. It may take you a while to adjust the image correctly, but it's not hard to do, just time consuming. Most people will want a knob on Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. Also no obvious diffraction spikes in the m31 photo. 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. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. And for those who like to work with 3D printers, both the single speed and dual-speed versions could easily be printed. As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. in the tube so they'll hit the knitting needle before your drawtube runs Slide the eyepiece into the focuser and try it out. (Technically, it should have been 62.5 for a 12.5 inch f/5, but when the mirror came it had a note on the back that the focal length was 61 inches.) But who cares, really? Put it all together 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. 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. crafts, science & engineering, design, and technology. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. 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. I welded mine from steel square tubing. They're fairly With an outer diameter of 14 3/16, I cut the Tube Box sides 15 5/8 and 14 5/8slightly less than my extra inch extra on each side. Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). I sanded all parts of the telescope with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit, making a very smooth surface to apply the stain. The diameter of the focuser is usually indicated in inches. I have one on my 12" f/5 truss dob and the focuser knob is on the top surface of the UTA. scope, I only put knobs on the outsides. This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. 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. I gave them a call and they said they had one on the shelf14 inches in diameter and 12 feet long! 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 11 years ago The rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. It turns out that sonotubes are a stock item in 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and sometimes even 16 inch diameters. 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. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. 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. It's the same in form, but has a perfect, true 13.35mm hole. One of the neat things about the square design is that the Sew the seam, and sew an elastic cord into the top to secure it to the secondary cage. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. 10 inch or 12 inch. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers 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. DO NOT drill out the holes in the board! Homemade astronomy. Upload that main sketch to the Nano. Thicker knitting needles would be even Thanks for the great comment. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. homemade Crayford focuser. I had cut the 12 foot tube in half in order to get it home in the first place, and a 6 foot section was the right size to work with for my f/5 12.5 inch. Newton, and others including James Gregory and Laurent Cassegrain, believed that a reflecting telescope would not be affected by the chromatic aberration that affected . Download and check them out, I just grabbed the first one and printed it. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular Just drill holes in both ends and mount the lenses. Cost is $25 - $30, and you will have 5 PCBs in about a week. When you're ready to go on to testing with the windows driver, you want "myFP2_DRV8825_312-1", open that folder. The flat wants to be running parallel to the long axis of the tube. Below are cutting diagrams and diagrams of the rocker and tube box with side bearings. My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. Just to make sure I liked the stain, I applied some to a piece of scrap wood. By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. You need a drawtube of course. I told them I was on my way. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. This is the kind of simple off the shelf design I was looking for. And a couple of upright bearing blocks. It is used to setup water outlet from overhead water tanks. Make an account on JLCPCB.com, upload the Gerber zip file, that's it! with a genuine question or comment about the design. 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. Un-real!!! Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. To cut the circles, I used a router with a straight cutting bit and a circle cutting jig. 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. The core of the telescope, the steel mirror cell holds and adjusts the heavy, curved primary mirror. Perfect for visual observations with very heavy mirrors. I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. I also wanted to strengthen and protect the cardboard tube. This is the upper tube that contains the flat secondary mirror, Telrad finder, and focuser. It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. 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. #@$%^#@!!!!! Connect the Arduino USB cable and upload some test sketches. Inside the OTA is a ring of tightly fitting flocking paper that prevents any light getting in around the drawtube. Thanks for your article. The box should be deep enough to allow the mirror box to swing all the way down. 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 sure is going to be a project I will work on. If you connect the 12V power with the barrel connector (right side of photo), the Nano should light up without the USB connection. But by this time I had thought about building my own scope for several weeks, and getting one off the shelf seemed pretty boring by comparison! A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. It features 2 semicircular arms, and mounting points for the trusses (T-nuts are fine), as well as a lid to keep the mirror safe when the telescope is not in use. Among amateur telescopes, the most common are focusers with landing diameters of 1.25 ", 2", rarely 0.965 ", and even less often - 3". 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 Electronics and software automate the process of taking pictures. Yet I was also becoming infected with aperture fever. Motion is very smooth. 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. It may need some careful coaxing with a screwdriver. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. The part is very strong! Share it with us! Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. on Step 1, Richards in our local astronomy club. This is because my router bit was inch and the arc would be cut by the outside edge of the bit (where the circle had been cut by the inside edge.) The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. 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. To view, go here: http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ DIY Truss Dob input: How to design truss? These have slop as you change direction, you can't do fine adjustments, they weigh a ton, and can flex alarmingly over time. adapter set screws to slide into. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. You can see that my Moonlite focuser was slightly larger than the sides of the tube. how much travel you actually need, you can cut the tube off so none of 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. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. 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. Reply This combination has the best resolution (steps/revolution), so I didn't see any reason to build anything else. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. The mirror cell: University Optics (eventually). I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. knob, and a drill press to make sure the hole for the knitting needle 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. 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! 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 day I received the refund, I ordered a mirror cell from University Optics. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. I tried this one first and found it wouldn't work for my application. needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. was straight so I wouldn't get a wobbly knob. I marked the spot and moved things back inside to install the mirror. Use mild soap and distilled . 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. 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 installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. Before finishing the tube with a wrap of veneer, I wanted to make sure that the primary was in the correct position. Sonotube (14 inch diameter, 12 feet long): $70, Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139, Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700. For my project I needed a 14 inch diameter, and I had a tough time finding one. The last time I checked, that particular SBIG camera used on TelescopeGeek had an eight month lead time.A 20" scope gathers 2.6 times more light than a 12.5" scope, therefore equivalent exposures on this one would take 200+ minutes, at least.

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