homemade telescope focuser

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 . One of the neat things about the square design is that the I added three inches for a margin of error and in case I need to rebalance the tube in the future, making a distance of 25 inches from the balance point of the tube to the rocker bottom. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. Wooden Telescope Part 2: Tube and Mount - Instructables My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. Featured in the February, 2015 issue of Sky & and an eyepiece. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. Because thebasic movement and optics requirements are relatively simple, much of the design is left to the builder. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. So, for my telescope I used a 6mm to 5mm coupler available on Amazon. The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. 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. 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. Use the externalMirror Edge Support Calculatorto decide whether to use a two-point, four-point (whiffletree), or sling support. To get this arc, I actually moved the radius of the jig in by 1/8 inch. Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. flexing. 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. I only do functional. I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. I used a hole saw to cut a wooden plug to fit inside the His passion is using CAD design and his homemade CNC router to bring large wood projects to life. Thanks Bob. Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. The cage should be a hollow cylinder about wider than the mirror, with the focuser mounted directly facing the secondary mirror. I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. Rock on! 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. If you found some good surplus lenses, you will have made a stunningly good objective for your scope. on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. 8 years ago This proved fatal for the stepper motor! While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. it sticks into your light path. To do this, the mirror cell needs to be supported by 3 large bolts, at least 2 of which are adjustable. 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'll use an aluminum tube for the finished draw tube but for now the plastic tube . I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. 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. But, like many of you I'm sure, the biggest reason I'm doing this is for the pure geeky fun of it! 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. It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. A bit of a monster! Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! 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. I had already made a lightweight focuser for Let me see if I can get similar plumbing parts here. A I had considered a Moonlite or Featherlite focuser, but I knew from my experience with my 6 inch scope that I wanted a 2 speed focuser, and the price tag of their 2 speed focusers scared me away. After looking at many focuser options with a big range of prices, I decided to order a GSO 2 speed Crayford focuser from ScopeStuff. This consists of a small black box of electronics. I decided to order a mirror cell from them because the owner had talked about a new cell he was excited about. Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). 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. - Bill. Homemade Electric Telescope Focuser - Stargazers Lounge Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. Pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a Newtonian reflector telescope with a unique two-axis movable base. } catch(err) {}, SH-232 Sharpless sh-232, sh-231, sh-233, sh-235, NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula, Sharpless 252, Sh2-252, HDW3 Hartl-Dengel-Weinberger 3 PN G149.4-09.2, SH-198 Sharpless 198, Soul Nebula, IC1848, NGC281 IC11, Sharpless Sh2-184, Pacman Nebula, SH2-173 SH2-173 Phantom of the Opera LBN 593, SH2-168 Sharpless HII regions. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. on Step 1, interesting build, its just like my old Odyssey brand scope from the mid 1990's. The bearings only need to be You need a drawtube of course. This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). 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. That evening I spent most of my time rediscovering the many DSOs around Sagittarius, especially the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. I would love to see your build when you are finished with it . that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. I marked the spot and moved things back inside to install the mirror. I have no idea how much mail this idea will generate, so I can't The version number "312" here may change if Robert posts new firmware. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. The cutting diagram in (figure 1) shows how I cut the required pieces from two 60 X 60 pieces of Baltic Birch plywood, one inch thick, and one 5/8. 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. Realizing that it could not be the University Optics cell already, I thought, Noit couldn't be but, in fact, it was. (The 8 inches from the center of the secondary to the field stop in the focuser is the same 8 inches from the center of the focuser to the top of the tube.) I would also like to know about how you can take such fantastic pictures without a field rotator and an autoguider system. You should watch (and bookmark) this video. I welded mine from steel square tubing. Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. A wide hole will let the knitting needle creep I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. 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. I have seen some VERY impressive photos similar to those, taken with Nikon D700 and D300 cameras, with the proper filters- and mounts- on a quality scope. 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. #2 knitting needle would be just about right. I'm' glad I did, because I didn't like the first color that I had chosen. a "rubbery" feel. Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. Download the Gerber Files. Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!). To view, go here: http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ Brandon Lawler is a hobbyist telescope Maker and an active member of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. #@$%^#@!!!!! A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! 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. How to make a $30 DIY star tracker for astrophotography I didn't receive any confirmation email after a few days, so I tried to send them an email. Have you made any mods on it since you built it? They're fairly This is the kind of simple off the shelf design I was looking for. I told them to take their time and get it right. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. and hope it doesn't fall off Robert Brown did an excellent video on how to work out your stepper motor requirements. Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more. 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. 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. Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. I'd Plan ahead by carefully weighing all components and approximating the center mass of the optical assembly. 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. The email bounced back to me. If you're not using heavy eyepieces, you probably don't need Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. The little app is simple and works great. This motor is available on Amazon. Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - 14 inch dob - Google the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. 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. SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. 11 years ago This is not recommended for shared computers. Thicker walls also required thicker side bearings so that the outside of the bearings would line up with the outside of the rocker sides. It is named after the Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society, Crayford, London, England where it was invented by John Wall, a member of the astronomical society which meets there. 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. (I didn't have the primary mirror yet). 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. After the pieces were glued together, I used a belt sander to smooth out any rough edges, being careful to keep both rocker sides and both side bearings exactly the same. 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. The drawings are only approximately to scale. 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. And a couple of upright bearing blocks. The hole did need to be enlarged slightly by moving the bit within the hole , but in the end, the fit seems right. When you figure out If not, you may need to design and print your own bracket(s), gears, and so on. Every primary telescope mirror has a fixed focal length thats usually 4 to 6 times the width of the mirror. Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. Homemade DIY focuser for telescope with computer control - NEUTRAL.org DIY Truss Dob input: How to design truss? crafts, science & engineering, design, and technology. How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. 10 inch or 12 inch. I gave them a call and they said they had one on the shelf14 inches in diameter and 12 feet long! Did you make this project? 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. Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). Download and unzip. 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 used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. This software creates a model of your telescope by measuring out of focus star sizes at various points. The core of the telescope, the steel mirror cell holds and adjusts the heavy, curved primary mirror. This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. ScopeStuff is awesome!! Look down through the empty focuser. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. (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.) scope, I only put knobs on the outsides. 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 redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? 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 telescopes size is classified by the size of its mirror. I first tried my 32mm plossl eyepiece. After going over the surfaces with a tack cloth to pick up the saw dust, I applied the stain and went over it with cheese cloth rags for an even finish. After another 3 weeks, I was concerned that I had not received the mirror. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. As the thread shows you could also build the dual speed version, all made of plywood, if you feel ready to tackle a slightly more complex project for a cost of about 5$ more. 10 years ago Im quite happy with the result, and the view in its large mirror is phenomenal. pageTracker._trackPageview(); My secondary is 4; for tips on choosing size, click here. If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube On the cutting diagram, you can see that the side bearings were cut 26 inches long. This project is based on Robert Brown's "Arduino ASCOM Focuser Pro2 DIY". I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. The basic points I wanted to cover: What did I end up with? on Introduction. 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. In my case I decided to make a custom bracket. homemade Crayford focuser. 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. forward and back along with the drawtube when you focus, and you'll get 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. Also no obvious diffraction spikes in the m31 photo. I suspected that the company was either in trouble or no longer in business. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. Put it all together Upload that main sketch to the Nano. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine today, Community access, print, and digital Magazine, and more. 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 only use the OTA. Shorter thread side will be used to attach the eyepiece. 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 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. To glue the side bearings and rocker sides to full thickness, I covered a side with wood glue, then carefully lined up the pieces and put two small nails into the pieces to hold them in place. 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. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - DIY Craford Focuser - Google Thanks for your article. You will have to line up the diagonal and primary so that you see a centered image of the sonotube opening and the spyder in the eyepiece hole. That's pretty much the focuser. This resulted in a gear that wasn't true and "wobbled" a bit. 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 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. I built mine entirely from CNC-cut plywood, and fastened it together with 2 bolts. 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. Two different construction supply companies told me that sonotubes were not available with a 14 inch diameter, even by special order. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. The focuser is very smooth. The sides were attached with wood glue and clamps with a few small brads to hold everything in place. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. Star Adventurer Pro Pack Counter Weight Bar Thumb Screw Upgrade. I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. I then ran a bead of glue on the mark, and after it dried I cut out the nylon up to the glue. Electronics and software automate the process of taking pictures. Share it with us! Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. : "http://www. Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). 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. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. The Artemis module works extremely well, and is to be strongly recommended. This is my copy of the telescope that Sir Isaac Newton presented to the Royal Society of London in 1671, and is considered to be the first successful reflecting telescope. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. In my build, the cage was cut on a CNC router from plywood, with threaded T-nuts added to support a truss assembly. Newton, and others including James Gregory and Laurent Cassegrain, believed that a reflecting telescope would not be affected by the chromatic aberration that affected . "https://ssl." There are sub-folders for the different versions. The rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. As the telescope tilts toward the horizon, the mirror must be supported on its edge. Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. 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. The extra force will also A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! 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. 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. 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. weight. 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. Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope. Knitting needles are focuser. I pointed it at distant trees and had no problem bringing the image into focus with all of my eyepieces. Below are cutting diagrams and diagrams of the rocker and tube box with side bearings. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. As I understand, you are using it for a refractor. but try for a snug fit if you can. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. After you've done that, put a couple of tiny pan-head screws 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. Edited by Pierre Lemay, 25 May 2020 - 08:10 AM. Given any mirror measurements, PLOP will provide the ideal support layout and how much distortion to expect for any number of flotation points. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. Thanks Peter. once. Best Wishes, Reply 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. 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 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. Secondary mirror with spider holder Search on eBay for a matched set. narrow the frame. 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. I At this point, the scope was pretty much finished. 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. I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus (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.) This motor has a larger shaft diameter (8mm) and is quite a bit heavier overall than the direct drive motor, mainly because of the gearbox. 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. You currently have javascript disabled. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion CNC files (optional) Download the Sketchup files. The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. In the sub-folder "Cases" you will see many variants of the case for the DRV8825 based focusers. This means I can use FocusMax to do the focusing. That helps with low-profile One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. 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. Nice looking telescope. This one is based on the DRV8825 driver chip and a NEMA-17 stepper motor. 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 had chosen a boxy, rigid design for the binocular scope, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. It takes the unknown out of focusing, and is easy to re-focus between filters, or refocus several times during a long exposure run as the world cools down. After a few weeks of no communication from them, no ability to phone or email them, and no mirror cell arriving. It was easy enough to drill a hole and tap threads for a The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. Trim off any unused fabric along the base. NEMA-17 Stepper Motor - see below, there are two options. I have several of the books on building a Dobsonian Telescope.

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