off the bearings. 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. I tried to call, but the voice mail had a recording stating that the customer was unable to receive messages. CNC files (optional) Download the Sketchup files. how much travel you actually need, you can cut the tube off so none of 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. Because mirror flexure can distort an image, supporting the mirror properly involves building a flotation cell. Bore out some 2.5 inch bar and mill a flat down the side making sure it is lined up. His project is very well documented. Rock on! This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. Homage to Homemade Crayford Focusers - Cloudy Nights This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. 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. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). In my build, the cage was cut on a CNC router from plywood, with threaded T-nuts added to support a truss assembly. It's easy to shim it to Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube You need some purple bits Once your telescope is assembled, drape black woven velveteen around the truss assembly, clipping it with safety pins. 8 years ago I had already made a lightweight focuser for This motor is available on Amazon. 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. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. This means you lose much of the night's images. on Step 1, Richards in our local astronomy club. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. 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. 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. The focuser 'knob' on the Celestron is just a rubber sleeve that usually pulls off easily. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. Pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a Newtonian reflector telescope with a unique two-axis movable base. The focuser is very smooth. 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. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. Post 10 of the same LSDF focuser thread also links to Art Bianconi's archived 2008 original flush valve focuser posts. 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. I've been using the above pair drneilmb, thanks for sharing the focuser design. Parts List (the full story of acquiring the parts), The primary, secondary, spider and secondary holderDiscovery Optics. I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. Finally it was etched in caustic soda, and anodised matt black. If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". I placed my telrad, optical finder, and an eyepiece on the focuser end of the tube and, using a broomstick as a balance point, found that the tube balanced 22 inches from the bottom. Sonotube (14 inch diameter, 12 feet long): $70, Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139, Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . I decided to order a mirror cell from them because the owner had talked about a new cell he was excited about. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. Someone is pulling someone's leg here. my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. 10 inch or 12 inch. It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. Fire up focusmax, and shoot some images! 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. Obviously an open truss telescope. on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. Using a compass I drew circles on the top and bottom of the ground board to mark the inside and outside of the teflon ring on the bottom of the rocker bottom. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. 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. 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. . 4 years ago A project collaboration and documentation platform. Orion Dynamo Mini for powering a Nexstar 6SE? Built one of these http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ working really well only cost less than 40.00. I then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement. Have you made any mods on it since you built it? 1" Rack & Pinion Focuser. The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. 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. This will determine the size of the coupler you will use to connect the stepper motor. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. 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. A decent machinest will do a far better job, but, there is always a lot more pleasure to be gained per astrophoto when you make bits yourself. Building the mirror box is tricky, because the entire optical assembly (mirror cell, mirror box, trusses, secondary cage) must balance at the center of rotation of the arms. Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. needle to be just a little too flexible for the weight of a diagonal and My secondary is 4; for tips on choosing size, click here. It may take you a while to adjust the image correctly, but it's not hard to do, just time consuming. 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. 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. Thanks for the great comment. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! It may need some careful coaxing with a screwdriver. Here's my 8" f/6 travel scope with a 2" PVC draw tube and the helical Crayford focuser built right in the focuser board. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion focusers, normally found in this type of device. ill ask him for a detailed list of what he used and when i get that ill post it here for you. Edited by sunrag, 28 May 2020 - 10:44 PM. Until I see photos of this scope setup for these pictures and an explanation of the exact equipment used, I cannot believe that these pictures were taken with this OTA. 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. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. My DIY Motorized Telescope Focuser - YouTube Im quite happy with the result, and the view in its large mirror is phenomenal. . I tried this one first and found it wouldn't work for my application. I'll use an aluminum tube for the finished draw tube but for now the plastic tube . In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip". 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). Before finishing the tube with a wrap of veneer, I wanted to make sure that the primary was in the correct position. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. 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. This might have been tempting if I wanted to build a 6 inch scopeat that size, they say that first-timers do pretty well at grinding and figuring their own optics. 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. Several of my Recent Images have been focused with this system. I also doubled the thickness of the rocker sides (not the front wall) to provide better support for the heavier tube. I decided that my best option was to scale up their 8 inch design for a 12.5 inch scope and sacrifice the portability and easier storage of a truss scope for something that I felt confident in building myself. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. 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. The company has a reputation for excellent optics, and it was neither the most expensive, nor the least. Start with the small components first. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. With the DRV8825 and Arduino Nano plugged in, the basic board is complete. DIY Craford Focuser. When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. Look down through the empty focuser. Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. That way you won't be dropping your drawtube and A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. the side of a rigid secondary cage. larger diameter. We are now ready for some testing. (I didn't have the primary mirror yet). If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. Topics such as
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. Homemade DIY focuser for telescope with computer control - NEUTRAL.org To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. with a genuine question or comment about the design. 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. My other telescope is a Celestron NexStar C6E. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. narrow the frame. This software creates a model of your telescope by measuring out of focus star sizes at various points. 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. (Sorry you and hope it doesn't fall off The pieces were cut down to 15 3/8 and 14 3/8, allowing just under 1/8 inch on each side. Also no obvious diffraction spikes in the m31 photo. Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! There are some test sketches in the "Tests" folder, start with those. The basic points I wanted to cover: What did I end up with?