Pierre Lemay, thanks for sharing your simple and incredible design. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. Use mild soap and distilled . "https://ssl." by cranking I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!). To hold the tube in place within the tube box, I used a combination of pieces of felt inside the box and wooden shims between the tube and the box. 11 years ago larger diameter. Your design is simple and nice. the bearings, totally eliminating any flex. Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). One of the neat things about the square design is that the 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. Attach the eye piece to another cardboard piece and pass it through the hole from the inside of the tube. 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. I am a retired USAF electronics engineer, and might even do much of the construction of the base with welded structural tubing, as, I do have a complete metal working shop besides my wood shop, here. Thanks Bob. I'm also going to focus on only one version of Robert's focuser (there are many). 10 years ago This is not recommended for shared computers. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. I found a used 16 primary on eBay. The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. Depending on your telescope, one of the Brackets that Robert has may work for you. 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. 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. ill ask him for a detailed list of what he used and when i get that ill post it here for you. Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. What materials did you use? Secondary mirror with spider holder Search on eBay for a matched set. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. On the bottom of the Bottom board is a ring of Ebony Star laminate that glides over the three teflon pads located directly above the feet on the ground board. And you can tell it's not a mosaic because the stars at the corners show coma/field curvature artifacts. 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. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. Homemade astronomy. Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. To cut the circles, I used a router with a straight cutting bit and a circle cutting jig. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. And a couple of upright bearing blocks. Rock Paper Scissors Using Tinkercad Circuits and Arduino, Punchy the MECH & the Autonomous Fight Club, PCB (printed circuit board) - download the, DRV8825 - stepper motor driver chip/board - again, clones available on. An electronic focuser, which moves the focus knob through a combination of hardware and software, solves this problem. 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. 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. installations. It turns out the the extra 1/16 allowed far too much side to side movement between the rocker and ground board. Put it all together 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. 11 years ago my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't try { You need some purple bits It's easy to shim it to The belt and pulleys are off-the-shelf items available on Amazon. I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. The day I received the refund, I ordered a mirror cell from University Optics. That helps with low-profile I gave them a call and they said they had one on the shelf14 inches in diameter and 12 feet long! This proved fatal for the stepper motor! 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. 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. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. My newtonian telescope, like most others, came fitted with a nasty rack and pinion focuser. My secondary is 4; for tips on choosing size, click here. The next day, I called back to ask their opinion about the kind of spider and secondary holder to order. Have you made any mods on it since you built it? Trim off any unused fabric along the base. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. 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. It seems to I Hope to give you ideas if you are thinking about building one for yourself! Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. I laughed, packed up the cell with a long letter describing the series of events that led to the return, and put it in the mail. too far. We all know the problems with focusing. Once its cut to length, drill a hole through each end of the tubing with a drill press. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. 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 curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope. With Simple | Space This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). a try. Wooden Telescope Part 2: Tube and Mount - Instructables I sanded all parts of the telescope with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit, making a very smooth surface to apply the stain. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. I told them to take their time and get it right. I want to make this direct drive system work. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. Im sorry to hear you couldn't make the contest. I drilled the holes in the center of the ground board and rocker bottom using a 9/16 bit, thinking that I needed the extra 1/16 so that the spacer could move. 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. Thank you for your pages. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. I got a different stain, tested it, and went back to work. Made of plywood, the rocker box supports the mirror box on 1 teflon pads, allowing it to rotate vertically. If you connect the 12V power with the barrel connector (right side of photo), the Nano should light up without the USB connection. (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.) I pointed it at distant trees and had no problem bringing the image into focus with all of my eyepieces. 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. This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. Once Id built a CNC router, I embarked on my third telescope, featuring a 16 primary mirror with aluminum trusses, wide vertical bearing arcs, a steel front-adjustable mirror cell, and a rotating base. I was certain not to move the jig at all before cutting the second circle. 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. I sourced my own Stepper motor and 1:150 reduction gearbox from RS, who are just up the road. I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. 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. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. Share it with us! large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus The hole is made slightly larger than the shaft, this is normal. Among amateur telescopes, the most common are focusers with landing diameters of 1.25 ", 2", rarely 0.965 ", and even less often - 3". More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. 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. 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. A week later the cell arrived (on schedule) from University Optics. The sides were attached with wood glue and clamps with a few small brads to hold everything in place. the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". The Dob is really a great design. stronger, but would give me a coarser focus action because of their After you've done that, put a couple of tiny pan-head screws Shorter thread side will be used to attach the eyepiece. They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. His project is very well documented. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. I called to express my concern and was told that it had all been packaged a few weeks ago and that it, For complete instructions on building a telescope such as this one, I strongly recommend buying a copy of, After cutting the circles for the side bearings, I set up the jig to cut the curved edges of the rocker sides. The box should be deep enough to allow the mirror box to swing all the way down. 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. It may take you a while to adjust the image correctly, but it's not hard to do, just time consuming. 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. After another 3 weeks, I was concerned that I had not received the mirror. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. For my project I needed a 14 inch diameter, and I had a tough time finding one. Thanks again for the 'ible. The overall project is super cheap, we're building this thing for something like $50 in materials. How to make a $30 DIY star tracker for astrophotography Download and unzip. 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. 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. See the images how I plan to assemble it. The flat wants to be running parallel to the long axis of the tube. my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. I used the "LEDandBuzzer" and "TestStepsDRV8825" tests. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. 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. I welded mine from steel square tubing. Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. If you don't want to go that route, contact me at gary.hethcoat@gmail.com since I have a lot of spare parts and I can sell you a "kit" with a PCB and only the parts you need. The next day my wife called me at work to tell me a box had arrived with telescope stuff. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. I call shenanigans on every picture in this post except for the the moon. This will determine the size of the coupler you will use to connect the stepper motor. I like the old way of using stepper motors and other stuff introduced years ago by Mel Bartels, he is a master for me. Slide the eyepiece into the focuser and try it out. crafts, science & engineering, design, and technology. Someone is pulling someone's leg here. Low, or Zero slop when changing direction. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. But who cares, really? 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. I built mine entirely from CNC-cut plywood, and fastened it together with 2 bolts. During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. I don't *do* pretty. It is used to setup water outlet from overhead water tanks. 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. (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.) Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion focusers, normally found in this type of device. The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. 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. But let me see what items I can arrange to make a helical. This is where you will use screws to strongly attach the focuser onto the tube. Built one of these http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ working really well only cost less than 40.00. To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. This simple homemade device will reduce star trails far better than if the camera was mounted on a tripod alone. 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. Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more. Next step, before my first acquisition of any parts, is to get with any amateur astronomers in Central Florida, so, wish me luck! My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. This motor is available on Amazon. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. Parts List (the full story of acquiring the parts), The primary, secondary, spider and secondary holderDiscovery Optics. In my case I decided to make a custom bracket. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. Did you make this project? You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. Several of my Recent Images have been focused with this system. Attach the ball head to the top board. I drilled holes for the screws that avoided the location of the ring, and attached the rocker bottom. initiatives for the next generation of makers. The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. 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. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. Lining up this center point with the center of the top of the side bearing, I brought the corner of the side bearing up to the edge of the tube box and attached it with screws. My guess is that photo was taken with a refractor. I file a dispute with Paypal to begin the process of getting my money back. 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. 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. It took yet another call a week later for the items to actually be mailed. Very simple and portable. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. Nice one. I've been using the above pair with a genuine question or comment about the design. It was May 12th. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube You will look through these as you rotate the wheel. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. I was annoyed to have made the mistake, but very glad that I checked the position on stars before wrapping the tube in veneer. 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. 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. 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 am using scrap upvc pipe material. Telescope Magazine. If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. I set things up in daylight and collimated the scope. A neet site: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/CAMERAS.HTM Cool instructable, Dude! A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers $299.99 More About Telescope Focusers I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. Rather than use a sheet of plastic Kydex to finish the tube, as recommended in K/B, I ordered a sheet of birch veneer. 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. I had initially allowed for more of a gap, but realized once I cut the pieces and held the tube inside them that my gap was too large. I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. 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. Also no obvious diffraction spikes in the m31 photo. Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. 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. on Step 5, 9 years ago Ideally, the spacer would be 1 inch long and have a smaller diameter, but I didn't get this one right the first time. I even began taking careful notes about needed supplies and plans for each piece of the truss tube scope. When you figure out You should now be able to drill the 4 holes at each corner. I have no dog in this hunt whatsoever, but if people are impressed by these photographs and vote for it because of them when there's no proof that this scope generated the photos and there IS data to the contrary (see below), then that's certainly not fair to the other contestants. As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. Build a Backyard Dobsonian Telescope - Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube I told them to take their time and get it right. The project took several months off and on to complete, although a skilled Maker could put a similar one together in a few weeks. When the skies were dark enough for observing I found that the scope moves easily into position and holds that position well. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. 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. on Introduction. This is the mirror box for my 16", with Jim doing a bit of cleanup sanding. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? small, it's surprisingly rigid. Thanks for your article. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. on Step 3. I'm' glad I did, because I didn't like the first color that I had chosen. the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. 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. Sew the seam, and sew an elastic cord into the top to secure it to the secondary cage. Thanks for the great comment. Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! on Introduction. document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. This combination has the best resolution (steps/revolution), so I didn't see any reason to build anything else. Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. DIY focuser design - ATM, Optics and DIY Forum - Cloudy Nights I read the entire thread and surely its going to help me building my focuser. 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! Realizing that it could not be the University Optics cell already, I thought, Noit couldn't be but, in fact, it was. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! 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. 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock, http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255. I applied contact cement to the first inch of the veneer and the mating inch of the tube. I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. pageTracker._trackPageview(); Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. Your astrophotographer friend may have included his own images from his setup. Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. 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. Many sources point out that 10 inches is a kind of sweet spot in the balance between power and portability. he might just have a $3200 camera, they aren't very hard to come by. Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. 11 years ago Along with some silver bits It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? So, for my telescope I used a 6mm to 5mm coupler available on Amazon. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. It turns out that sonotubes are a stock item in 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and sometimes even 16 inch diameters. Bore out some 2.5 inch bar and mill a flat down the side making sure it is lined up. I marked the spot and moved things back inside to install the mirror. 100A81BF-2145-44D5-BC76-66DBF43BAD58.jpeg. 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. This is the upper tube that contains the flat secondary mirror, Telrad finder, and focuser. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. Obviously an open truss telescope. I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. I made a similar helical focuser with a nice 2 inch thing I found in Classifieds. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. knitting needle where it goes through the hole, so it's not a big deal, Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!) Then it was time to stain and finish. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. 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. Focusers of telescopes. Types, difference, specifications - Star Hunter on Step 1, interesting build, its just like my old Odyssey brand scope from the mid 1990's. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". 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. Reply rod for the drive axle it would have a fairly fine motion. I have one on my 12" f/5 truss dob and the focuser knob is on the top surface of the UTA. 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. Pretty dry but important! I carefully cut exactly through the center of each side bearing circle to make my semicircles. Or rather, I hated it. 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. Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. 4 years ago This combination has proved to be effective for all positions except when the tube is pointed directly up. Accordingly, with 1.25 focuser, you can use 1.25 eyepieces, with 2 focuser - both 2 eyepieces and 1.25 (through a special . Make an account on JLCPCB.com, upload the Gerber zip file, that's it! I have several of the books on building a Dobsonian Telescope. You should watch (and bookmark) this video. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. DIY Remote Telescope Focuser - YouTube 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.