and an eyepiece. 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. Those are the last screws to be tightened. To test the concept I used a short piece of two inch PVC for the draw tube. 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. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a They're fairly My telescope is the Orion ED80T-CF. The holes in the main bracket the match the holes in the plate are oversize to allow for this alignment. $299.99 More About Telescope Focusers Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. the side of a rigid secondary cage. on Introduction. 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. The belt and pulleys are off-the-shelf items available on Amazon. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers
Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. We were careful to press out any bubbles as we went, but when the job was done we found that there were multiple bubbles in the veneer. Accordingly, with 1.25 focuser, you can use 1.25 eyepieces, with 2 focuser - both 2 eyepieces and 1.25 (through a special . Then it was time to stain and finish. on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. They even offered to send the spider, secondary holder, and secondary mirror immediately so that I could begin working on the tube while I waited for the primary. curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. I would love to see your build when you are finished with it . As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. I wanted a tight / press fit, so I only added half that, 0.25mm. It take automatic control of the CCD camera and focuser, and dances around magically on the screen, arriving at perfect focus within about 30s to 3 minutes depending on where you started from.
Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube This is the upper tube that contains the flat secondary mirror, Telrad finder, and focuser. Not sure if it is available in the USA. It seems to That way you won't be dropping your drawtube and So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. 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. This project is based on Robert Brown's "Arduino ASCOM Focuser Pro2 DIY". I hate focusing. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. The hole is made slightly larger than the shaft, this is normal. 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. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. 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. We use cookies to continuously improve our websites for you and optimize its design and customization. One of the neat things about the square design is that the Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without This is because my router bit was inch and the arc would be cut by the outside edge of the bit (where the circle had been cut by the inside edge.) Our websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience. I took the whole tube assembly outside. Pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a Newtonian reflector telescope with a unique two-axis movable base.
Homemade Electric Telescope Focuser - Stargazers Lounge Upload that main sketch to the Nano. You need a drawtube of course. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. 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. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. . Homemade astronomy. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. The focuser is very smooth. Parts List (the full story of acquiring the parts), The primary, secondary, spider and secondary holderDiscovery Optics. love to hear from people who are interested in this focuser design. As I understand, you are using it for a refractor. 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. Just to make sure I liked the stain, I applied some to a piece of scrap wood. Also, I will work with my computer geek buddies, so that we eventually automate it using Linux on a Rock64, to run kstars for tracking, on INDI. the drive shaft close against the drawtube. If you're not using heavy eyepieces, you probably don't need The side bearings are each made from 2 identical semicircles of 5/8 inch plywood glued together to make a thickness of 1 inches. small, it's surprisingly rigid. work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford The focuser knob had two set screws. Ideally, the spacer would be 1 inch long and have a smaller diameter, but I didn't get this one right the first time. But who cares, really? I file a dispute with Paypal to begin the process of getting my money back. 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 It took about 3 weeks but, since Anttler's did not even reply to the Paypal dispute, I received a Paypal refund. It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). All in all it seemed like a pretty robust design, so I gave it The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. 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. During on-site assembly, attach each truss to its mounting T-nut using a bolt with a thumbscrew knob. I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. Very simple and portable. 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. Similar photos at http://www.telescopegeek.com/gallery.htm require 100+ minute exposure times on his 20" telescope and $3200 camera. Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how
My DIY Motorized Telescope Focuser - YouTube See the images how I plan to assemble it. Meade Zero Image-Shift Electronic Micro-Focuser This high precision focuser allows you to obtain an extremely accurate image focus. Sh2-169 and Sh2-168, IC5146 Cocoon Nebula, Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125. The overall project is super cheap, we're building this thing for something like $50 in materials. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. knitting needle where it goes through the hole, so it's not a big deal, 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. It took yet another call a week later for the items to actually be mailed.
Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). Here's a detailed response from a thread at CloudyNights:http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255 "The image scale is wrong on the M31 image, fits too much of the galaxy in for even a 35mm chip. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. 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. As I mentioned on my binocular Today I purchased what is called atank nipple in India. 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. 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 Focuser and other items: (Scope Stuff).
How to make diy focuser pvc - YouTube The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. Did you make this project? Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. This will determine the size of the coupler you will use to connect the stepper motor. 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. Plus it comes in black, so Two inch internal diameter drawtube. 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. "); 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. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. Once built, line the undersides of the arms with textured ABS plastic as a bearing surface. until a 2" eyepiece or 1.25" adapter is snug. Install on Windows 10, this part is pretty straightforward. 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. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight.
If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. Electronics and software automate the process of taking pictures.
Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope.
A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. This motor is available on Amazon. Drawing lines between opposite corners of the tube box sides allowed me to locate the center point on each side. Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. Rack & Pinion: For many years the standard focuser was of the rack-and-pinion type - a small pinion gear moved the flat toothed rack that was attached to or built into the moving focusing tube that holds the eyepiece.However, this geared system was far from ideal, with some wobble due to the friction fit between the fixed and moving tubes and backlash due to the gears. You can see that my Moonlite focuser was slightly larger than the sides of the tube. 11 years ago I centered the focuser 8 inches from the top of the tube, using a 2.5 inch hole drilling saw with smaller holes for the bolts that would hold the focuser. (Sorry you Two inch internal diameter drawtube. The diameter of the focuser is usually indicated in inches. Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.) Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. An Altitude Azimuth mount would also require a field rotator.There's no way these were taken with an Orion GoTo Mount. Having an RS trade counter 2 miles away is such a luxury! too far. I have several of the books on building a Dobsonian Telescope. (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.) initiatives for the next generation of makers. i am not trying to win this contest with photos. 8 years ago The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. The drawings are only approximately to scale. Picture of DS-4. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal 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. Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. 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. If you go to buy all of the components for this project from dealers, you will see that you mostly have to buy at least 5 parts, sometimes bags of 50 parts! Along with some silver bits . It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. 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. I marked the expected position of the secondary by measuring 61 inches down from the end of the tube. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. Newton, and others including James Gregory and Laurent Cassegrain, believed that a reflecting telescope would not be affected by the chromatic aberration that affected . Every primary telescope mirror has a fixed focal length thats usually 4 to 6 times the width of the mirror. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. Trim off any unused fabric along the base. Use mild soap and distilled . 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. Read the documentation though, there are a lot of functions and options. I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. off the bearings. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. It turns out the the extra 1/16 allowed far too much side to side movement between the rocker and ground board.
A Homemade Crayford Focuser Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project - focusing is now a joy. This is where you will use screws to strongly attach the focuser onto the tube. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. Thanks Pinbout for sharing your design. How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope. 4 years ago The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. With the DRV8825 and Arduino Nano plugged in, the basic board is complete. DIY Craford Focuser.
Homemade DIY focuser for telescope with computer control - NEUTRAL.org The focal length of the mirror is 61 inches. That helps with low-profile Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. - Bill. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); widening the hole. It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. I did run into a small problem with the focuser. This cost around $100 to build and all of the components came from Jaycar, except the brackets which were made with 1.2mm sheet metal. 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. Share a cool tool or product with the community. Thicker walls also required thicker side bearings so that the outside of the bearings would line up with the outside of the rocker sides. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. Did you make this project? Next step, before my first acquisition of any parts, is to get with any amateur astronomers in Central Florida, so, wish me luck! Participated in the Celestron Space Challenge. Attach the ball head to the top board. 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. I got a different stain, tested it, and went back to work. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. focusers for that project. Find a special something for the makers in your life. I'm' glad I did, because I didn't like the first color that I had chosen. 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. my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. I called in the order and explained that I would be using a mirror two inches thick. I had chosen a boxy, rigid design for the binocular scope, so With an outer diameter of 14 3/16, I cut the Tube Box sides 15 5/8 and 14 5/8slightly less than my extra inch extra on each side. I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. A neet site: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/CAMERAS.HTM Cool instructable, Dude! 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. A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. Be creative! 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. Remember: It is the quality and SIZE of the capture chip, NOT the megapixels that determines quality. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. The Crayford Focuser 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. 10 years ago I will post the pic of final focuser once ready. eyepiece on the ground (or worse, on your primary mirror!)
Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop the bearings right at the edge of the frame, reducing the frame to pageTracker._trackPageview(); This proved fatal for the stepper motor! 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. With adapters for any Meade 1x200-ACF or LS model, and chord to plug into focuser port. Brandon Lawler is a hobbyist telescope Maker and an active member of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. stronger, but would give me a coarser focus action because of their
Orion Telescope Focusers | Buy Direct and Save! Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. 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 . Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". To cut the circles, I used a router with a straight cutting bit and a circle cutting jig. I've been using the above pair It is not very powerful, it will not supply enough torque if you put any load on it or have a heavy optical train (like I do) and the focuser has to "pull" it upward when the telescope is vertical. Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? Gift the gift of Make: Magazine this holiday season! Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. 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 Artemis module works extremely well, and is to be strongly recommended. an inch or so apart, so the focuser body could be pretty low profile. Topics such as
Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. There are some test sketches in the "Tests" folder, start with those. It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. 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. I then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement. 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. 1N5408 3A Diode (you may need to make the pins smaller to fit through the holes in the board. The next day my wife called me at work to tell me a box had arrived with telescope stuff. 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. Low, or Zero slop when changing direction. For about $3 we can buy a tank valve kit that has a threaded 2" i.d. I also doubled the thickness of the rocker sides (not the front wall) to provide better support for the heavier tube. on Step 3. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. The company has a reputation for excellent optics, and it was neither the most expensive, nor the least. I plan to use an FTA over it in case an extension is needed. a 3/4" thickness. by cranking Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. Start with the small components first. 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. 7 years ago I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler.
Telescope Electronic Focuser : 16 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables After you've done that, put a couple of tiny pan-head screws on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. And a flat thing to put it all on This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!) Bill, Impressive work and great idea about LSDF focuser. I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. 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. once. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches). Inside the OTA is a ring of tightly fitting flocking paper that prevents any light getting in around the drawtube. I tried this one first and found it wouldn't work for my application. 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. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. 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. It stalled when tension on the belt increased. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft.
Tom's Homemade Telescope Page - DIY Craford Focuser - Google 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock, http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. But, especially on cold evenings, the focus may go out in the middle of the night. It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. 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. the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". I only do functional. Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart Before you do this, the stepper motor will probably move, but it will make a 'stuttering' sound instead of moving smoothly. 4 years ago control. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. 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.
With Simple, Homemade Telescopes, You Can Explore the Stars (Op-Ed)