We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. 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. I also doubled the thickness of the rocker sides (not the front wall) to provide better support for the heavier tube. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. 4 years ago I sourced my own Stepper motor and 1:150 reduction gearbox from RS, who are just up the road. - Bill. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion focusers, normally found in this type of device. It doesn't. A tilted focuser will have no effect on the image quality. 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 told them to take their time and get it right. 4 years ago Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. Did you make this project? Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular 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. 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. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. control. You won't need to write any sketches from scratch, but you will at least need to figure out how to upload them to the Nano. The focuser is the part of the telescope that holds the eyepiece or camera, and by moving in or out, closer or farther from the . 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. Dobsonian telescopes are popular with amateur telescope makers for their ease of design and construction, portability, and their use of large optical mirrors. Once you get it working, there's some calibration you need to do. 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. 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. Share it with us! 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. This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). Next step, before my first acquisition of any parts, is to get with any amateur astronomers in Central Florida, so, wish me luck! work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford Download the Gerber Files. guarantee a response, but I'll do my best to answer everyone who writes 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. And for those who like to work with 3D printers, both the single speed and dual-speed versions could easily be printed. Now attach the screw eyes and the rubber band on the side of the board. Finally it was etched in caustic soda, and anodised matt black. small, it's surprisingly rigid. If your optical train is heavy and the focuser has to bear it (see above) then this motor may be a better choice. Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. 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 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. the drive shaft close against the drawtube. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. 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. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. 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. The premier publication of maker projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews, and inspirational stories, Someone is pulling someone's leg here. 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. As the telescope tilts toward the horizon, the mirror must be supported on its edge. eyepiece on the ground (or worse, on your primary mirror!) Helical is one of the option i am considering. I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. And a flat thing to put it all on This resulted in a gear that wasn't true and "wobbled" a bit. 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. I found a used 16 primary on eBay. Thanks Peter. 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. After you've done that, put a couple of tiny pan-head screws Motion is very smooth. stronger, but would give me a coarser focus action because of their 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 glue should keep the nylon from fraying. scope, I only put knobs on the outsides. 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). My concern turned to alarm when my wife told me that Discovery had charged the balance due on all items to my account a few weeks earlier. I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. And a couple of upright bearing blocks. Maker-written books designed to inform and delight! I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. My telescope is the Orion ED80T-CF. a try. This consists of a small black box of electronics. Thanks Pinbout for sharing your design. Yet I was also becoming infected with aperture fever. For complete instructions on building a telescope such as this one, I strongly recommend buying a copy of The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege and Richard Berry. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. The Crayford Focuser and DIY Focuser for Homemade Telescope By trukmeeilee in Circuits Cameras 3,461 3 1 Download Favorite By trukmeeilee Follow More by the author: The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. 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. Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. 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. The rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. 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. Once its cut to length, drill a hole through each end of the tubing with a drill press. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart Perfect for visual observations with very heavy mirrors. This motor is available on Amazon. Step 4Attaching the Side Bearings and assembling the Rocker. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. I suspected that the company was either in trouble or no longer in business. 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. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion When the skies were dark enough for observing I found that the scope moves easily into position and holds that position well. I didn't bother reading his whole article to figure out what f/# he used) I am not trying to say that good AP isn't possible with a sonotube scope, (the 'friend' may very well have pulled it out of the dob mount, added rings and a dovetail, and mounted it on his CGE-Pro or comparable) but in this case it is unlikely.". on Step 5. 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. I did not glue the bearings to the tube box in case I needed to adjust the position later. 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. widening the hole. This arrangement turns 100% true, no wobble. I Hope to give you ideas if you are thinking about building one for yourself! Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in 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 Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. on Step 1, Richards in our local astronomy club. I decided to keep this tube for now and if I run into problems with it, I can replace it later. 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. But, especially on cold evenings, the focus may go out in the middle of the night. A few months later I ordered some other things from Scopestuff, including strips of Ebony Star laminate for the side bearings, a ring of Ebony Star for the rocker bottom, a strip of teflon to cut pieces for the ground board and side bearings, and a new base for my Telrad finder. The base and the rocker box in my telescope are secured with a skate bearing assembly but could be more simply attached with a bolt through the center. Measure the diameter of the exposed shaft. So, am curious to see what others have designed and built and proud to show off here on the homage to Crayford thread. To test the concept I used a short piece of two inch PVC for the draw tube. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope. In my build, the cage was cut on a CNC router from plywood, with threaded T-nuts added to support a truss assembly. 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. Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. Using heavy grit sandpaper I brought back the surface of the keeper enough for the side bearings to fit inside the felt pads. So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. I first tried my 32mm plossl eyepiece. I phoned in the order in the last week of February and was told that it would take about 4 weeks to deliver the mirror. the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". I decided to order an aluminum mirror cell from University Optics instead so that the mirror could be supported at 9 different points. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. it sticks into your light path. The silly colours are mainly due to me experimenting with various clothes dyes in the anodising. Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. When you're ready to go on to testing with the windows driver, you want "myFP2_DRV8825_312-1", open that folder. It seems to experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. I do have another tube that can be used around the drawtube, but it doesn't really add anything. I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. You should now be able to drill the 4 holes at each corner. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. Every primary telescope mirror has a fixed focal length thats usually 4 to 6 times the width of the mirror. 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. the bearings right at the edge of the frame, reducing the frame to Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. We then spread contact cement over the remaining veneer and tube surface, waited for the glue to dry, and carefully rolled the tube over the veneer. 100A81BF-2145-44D5-BC76-66DBF43BAD58.jpeg. You really need a step ladder even for my 10" when pointed overhead. Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. both sides. Share it with us! I am thankful to enjoy the inspiration, and the details, that you provide, as I will soon be constructing a Dobsonian Telescope. corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece It It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. In scaling up the K/B 8 inch design, I made a few changes that, I hope, will improve the design for 12.5 inch aperture. I really had to, since the underside of my telescope's focuser is all curves, no flat area for attaching the mounting bracket. 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. You need to order it sized for your focuser shaft size. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. "https://ssl." If you're not using heavy eyepieces, you probably don't need really stiff and light for their size, and even though a #2 is pretty 11 years ago You reach a point where the picture doesn't seem to change much, so you never know where the very sweetest spot in the focus is. When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. 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. Place the focuser, draw the position of the screws with a pencil and remove the focuser. That evening I spent most of my time rediscovering the many DSOs around Sagittarius, especially the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula. After a few weeks of no communication from them, no ability to phone or email them, and no mirror cell arriving. As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. Star Adventurer Pro Pack Counter Weight Bar Thumb Screw Upgrade. The overall project is super cheap, we're building this thing for something like $50 in materials. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. Download and check them out, I just grabbed the first one and printed it. Thanks Bob. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. Or rather, I hated it. on Introduction. 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 have one on my 12" f/5 truss dob and the focuser knob is on the top surface of the UTA. 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. OK, no, I do not have a homemade Crayford focuser but am planning to build a 3 incher for next years 17" reflector telescope project and to hold my new 30mm ES 100 degree EP. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers The cost is a bit more than some of the other combinations, but by only $10 or $20. Im sorry to hear you couldn't make the contest. But -- you have to be careful that the mechanism is true and the motor does not have a load on it at any time, otherwise it will 'stall' and stop moving. 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. 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. They eyepiece height ended up being about 5'10" high at zenith. in the tube so they'll hit the knitting needle before your drawtube runs The cage should be a hollow cylinder about wider than the mirror, with the focuser mounted directly facing the secondary mirror. Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!). 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. Only problem is if I put a diagonal it wants to rotate the helical part. I used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. 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 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. 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. weight. Download and unzip. Post 10 of the same LSDF focuser thread also links to Art Bianconi's archived 2008 original flush valve focuser posts. So, for my telescope I used a 6mm to 5mm coupler available on Amazon. I made this Crayford style focuser using plywood scraps and surplus bearings. by cranking I've been using the above pair The box should be deep enough to allow the mirror box to swing all the way down. Use the externalMirror Edge Support Calculatorto decide whether to use a two-point, four-point (whiffletree), or sling support. The company has a reputation for excellent optics, and it was neither the most expensive, nor the least. More Homemade Refractor Telescope DIY Erecting Prism Binoviewer Focuser here: Did you make this project? Having an RS trade counter 2 miles away is such a luxury! I would also like to know about how you can take such fantastic pictures without a field rotator and an autoguider system. on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. 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! Reply Attach the ball head to the top board. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. Nice one. A free program that lights childrens creative fires and allows them to explore projects in areas such as arts & And you can tell it's not a mosaic because the stars at the corners show coma/field curvature artifacts. 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. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. Fire up focusmax, and shoot some images! Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more. 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. The focuser knob had two set screws.