When the skies were dark enough for observing I found that the scope moves easily into position and holds that position well. 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. I marked the spot and moved things back inside to install the mirror. I sourced my own Stepper motor and 1:150 reduction gearbox from RS, who are just up the road. on Step 5. I tried this one first and found it wouldn't work for my application. 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. 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. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. It doesn't. A tilted focuser will have no effect on the image quality. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? A free program that lights childrens creative fires and allows them to explore projects in areas such as arts &
Dobsonians come in all shapes and sizes, from small 4-8 builds all the way up to massive 24-36 creations. Rather than use a sheet of plastic Kydex to finish the tube, as recommended in K/B, I ordered a sheet of birch veneer. 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. Carve out a hole on the top part of the sonotube first. 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. While round tubing is sturdy, square tubing is easier to work with. See above, this motor does not produce a lot of torque, but you don't need much for this application since there is no 'load' on the focusing shaft. I did not own all of the tools that I needed for this project, particularly a table saw and router, so I did a lot of work while visiting my Dad.
You can see that my Moonlite focuser was slightly larger than the sides of the tube. Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. That's pretty much the focuser. It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. I It may take you a while to adjust the image correctly, but it's not hard to do, just time consuming. Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. Inside the OTA is a ring of tightly fitting flocking paper that prevents any light getting in around the drawtube. Put it all together Two different construction supply companies told me that sonotubes were not available with a 14 inch diameter, even by special order. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. Most people will want a knob on on Introduction. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. Here is a simple 3D printed helical focuser that cost just a few cents (assuming you have a 3D printer). Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. I then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement.
With Simple, Homemade Telescopes, You Can Explore the Stars (Op-Ed) Several functions may not work. And you can tell it's not a mosaic because the stars at the corners show coma/field curvature artifacts. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. 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. I gave them a call and they said they had one on the shelf14 inches in diameter and 12 feet long! 1N5408 3A Diode (you may need to make the pins smaller to fit through the holes in the board. Cost is $25 - $30, and you will have 5 PCBs in about a week.
The Crayford Focuser and DIY Focuser for Homemade Telescope Headers for the LEDs, buzzer (2-pin) and temperature probe (3-pin). I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. . Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. We all know the problems with focusing. I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. On the cutting diagram, you can see that the side bearings were cut 26 inches long. Telescope Magazine. 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. Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! (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.) This motor is available on Amazon. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. Dobsonian telescopes are popular with amateur telescope makers for their ease of design and construction, portability, and their use of large optical mirrors. 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. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. 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. I plan to use an FTA over it in case an extension is needed.
Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube 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. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach.
Homage to Homemade Crayford Focusers - Cloudy Nights They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. This simple homemade device will reduce star trails far better than if the camera was mounted on a tripod alone. on Introduction. I carefully cut exactly through the center of each side bearing circle to make my semicircles. Did you make this project? The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. Secondary mirror with spider holder Search on eBay for a matched set. The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. This will determine the size of the coupler you will use to connect the stepper motor. From everything I had read, I expected that getting a sonotube would be as easy as running to any hardware store and picking it up. Edited by Pierre Lemay, 25 May 2020 - 08:10 AM. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion After researching several possible sources for a primary mirror, I decided to order an f/5 12.5 inch mirror from Discovery Optics. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. Start with the small components first. You need some purple bits 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. To cut the circles, I started with a depth of about 1/8 inch, then lowered the bit and cut a little more with each pass until I was through the board. The pieces were cut down to 15 3/8 and 14 3/8, allowing just under 1/8 inch on each side. it sticks into your light path. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! . try { 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. Download and check them out, I just grabbed the first one and printed it. By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. This means you lose much of the night's images. DIY Truss Dob input: How to design truss? on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. If you connect the 12V power with the barrel connector (right side of photo), the Nano should light up without the USB connection. Reply I used a hole saw to cut a wooden plug to fit inside the 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. I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. #2 knitting needle would be just about right. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. the bearings right at the edge of the frame, reducing the frame to Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. Attach the eye piece to another cardboard piece and pass it through the hole from the inside of the tube. Once the pieces were cut and I held them around the tube, I decided to cut them a bit smaller because the extra space was too much. The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. 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. the bearings, totally eliminating any flex. I suspected that the company was either in trouble or no longer in business. Here's a detailed response from a thread at CloudyNights:http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255 "The image scale is wrong on the M31 image, fits too much of the galaxy in for even a 35mm chip. This consists of a small black box of electronics. After waiting for the contact cement to dry to the touch, and with my wife's help, I carefully aligned the edge of the veneer with the guideline on the tube and pressed the first inch together. Have you made any mods on it since you built it? It was May 12th. 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! 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. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. 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. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. I used one of the top scraps from the rocker sides to mark an angle of 70 degrees from the center of the arc to the curved cut in order to properly space 1 X 7/8 teflon pads on the arcs. Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. I started by trying to drill out a metal gear for the focuser shaft. The cage should be a hollow cylinder about wider than the mirror, with the focuser mounted directly facing the secondary mirror. The little app is simple and works great. The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. Someone is pulling someone's leg here. I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. 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. What materials did you use? I Hope to give you ideas if you are thinking about building one for yourself! The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. a 3/4" thickness. you could probably space the bearings 3/4" apart instead of 1" and mount I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan.
How To Build A Dobsonian Telescope [Guide 2022] - DopeGuides 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. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. forward and back along with the drawtube when you focus, and you'll get 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. Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. I was certain not to move the jig at all before cutting the second circle. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. The one company that did provide a price quoted over $500more than I was willing to pay for cardboard!
The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. This proved fatal for the stepper motor! 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. I hate focusing. focusers for that project. It turns out the the extra 1/16 allowed far too much side to side movement between the rocker and ground board. Using plywood, make 4 attachment blocks to pair the trusses together and create a small ledge for the secondary cage to rest on while you secure it. It just 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. Once your telescope is assembled, drape black woven velveteen around the truss assembly, clipping it with safety pins. Pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a Newtonian reflector telescope with a unique two-axis movable base. These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. 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. I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. 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). needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. 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. A wide hole will let the knitting needle creep my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. CNC files (optional) Download the Sketchup files. In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip".