They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. 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. I also decided to make a separate mounting plate for the stepper motor, since I figured aligning the shafts precisely would be all but impossible. 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. Carve out a hole on the top part of the sonotube first. Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. Then it was time to stain and finish. Star Adventurer Pro Pack Counter Weight Bar Thumb Screw Upgrade. I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. Slide the eyepiece into the focuser and try it out. Inside the OTA is a ring of tightly fitting flocking paper that prevents any light getting in around the drawtube. the side of a rigid secondary cage. This proved fatal for the stepper motor! Earthbound1 likes this #2 dave brock Mercury-Atlas This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. After cutting the circles for the side bearings, I set up the jig to cut the curved edges of the rocker sides. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. The little app is simple and works great. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. Thanks for your article. 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. Best Wishes, Reply A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. case you need more focuser travel than you thought. In my build, the minimum eyepiece-to-secondary mirror distance (13) plus the primary-to-secondary mirror distance (57) equals the focal length of 71, which is roughly 4.5 times the width of the 16 mirror. Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. . large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. 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. Reply This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip". Finally, I attached Keepers to the sides of the rocker at the bottom of the arcs using screws and glue. 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. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. 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. $299.99 More About Telescope Focusers A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. Shorter thread side will be used to attach the eyepiece. 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. 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 started with a spacer that with a inch outer diameter. forces the knitting needle against the drawtube and the drawtube against 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. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. An electronic focuser, which moves the focus knob through a combination of hardware and software, solves this problem. 10 inch or 12 inch. 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. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the 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. After a few weeks of no communication from them, no ability to phone or email them, and no mirror cell arriving. This unit takes signals from your computer and drives the stepper motor on the focuser. To cut the circles, I used a router with a straight cutting bit and a circle cutting jig. I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. It seems to small, it's surprisingly rigid. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. Page 1 of 2 - DIY focuser design - posted in ATM, Optics and DIY Forum: Hi I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6 F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. Your design is simple and nice. Helicals are adaptable to both refractors and reflectors, but do not "play nice" with zoom eyepieces because "zooming" becomes a two handed operation to avoid changing focus. Edited by sunrag, 28 May 2020 - 10:44 PM. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. The heaviest piece is 40 lbs, and the total scope weighs about 60 lbs (not counting the baffle). 8 years ago The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. They said they would make the brackets extra long to accommodate the mirror and it would take about a week. I did not glue the bearings to the tube box in case I needed to adjust the position later. Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. Topics such as I'd Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. 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. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. Made of plywood, the rocker box supports the mirror box on 1 teflon pads, allowing it to rotate vertically. I made this Crayford style focuser using plywood scraps and surplus bearings. 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. Rock Paper Scissors Using Tinkercad Circuits and Arduino, Punchy the MECH & the Autonomous Fight Club, Soft-sensor-saurus | an E-textile Soft Sensor Soft Toy With LED Light. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. narrow the frame. work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford an eyepiece. To make the hole for the focuser, I used the focuser tube to mark a circle in the shroud. This NEMA-17 direct drive stepper motor is available from Adafruit and many other sellers. 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. When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. control. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat Because mirror flexure can distort an image, supporting the mirror properly involves building a flotation cell. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). 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. Among amateur telescopes, the most common are focusers with landing diameters of 1.25 ", 2", rarely 0.965 ", and even less often - 3". The secondary holder is adjustable, so I could didn't have to get the location perfect. Nice work and great instructable! 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. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. Once its cut to length, drill a hole through each end of the tubing with a drill press. 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. I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. I want to make this direct drive system work. Most of these have one or two set screws. Some quick tips to note if you are making a homemade telescope are: 1. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. I will post the pic of final focuser once ready. 11 years ago Thanks Pinbout for sharing your design. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! 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. 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. 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. The curved sides of the Side Bearings are also covered with strips of Ebony Star that glide on the teflon pads on the curved edges of the Rocker Sides (figure 3). One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. And you can tell it's not a mosaic because the stars at the corners show coma/field curvature artifacts. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. on Step 1, Richards in our local astronomy club. After researching several possible sources for a primary mirror, I decided to order an f/5 12.5 inch mirror from Discovery Optics. Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. 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. Community Forum Software by IP.BoardLicensed to: Cloudy Nights. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. with a genuine question or comment about the design. curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. #2 knitting needle would be just about right. 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. on Step 1, interesting build, its just like my old Odyssey brand scope from the mid 1990's. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. was straight so I wouldn't get a wobbly knob. On the cutting diagram, you can see that the side bearings were cut 26 inches long. . Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. Nice one. Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. homemade Crayford focuser. The next day my wife called me at work to tell me a box had arrived with telescope stuff. You can easily, and economically (10$) build a Crayford Helical Focuser like the one pictured above in one evening with simple tools. needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without I used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. 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. 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. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. it sticks into your light path. The drawings are only approximately to scale. Realizing that it could not be the University Optics cell already, I thought, Noit couldn't be but, in fact, it was. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. I like the old way of using stepper motors and other stuff introduced years ago by Mel Bartels, he is a master for me. The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. I took the whole tube assembly outside. Today I purchased what is called atank nipple in India. A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. 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. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. 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. While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. 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. 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. The silly colours are mainly due to me experimenting with various clothes dyes in the anodising. 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. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. Some of these are essential for the basic functionalities of our websites. PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. he might just have a $3200 camera, they aren't very hard to come by. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. The overall project is super cheap, we're building this thing for something like $50 in materials. If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. 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. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. 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.

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