homemade telescope focuser homemade telescope focuser

And a flat thing to put it all on While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. I had already made a lightweight focuser for I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. For my project I needed a 14 inch diameter, and I had a tough time finding one. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. Share it with us! Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!) Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. The silly colours are mainly due to me experimenting with various clothes dyes in the anodising. 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. I do it with aluminium alloy, aluminium tube and nice work. 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. 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. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus case you need more focuser travel than you thought. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. Accordingly, with 1.25 focuser, you can use 1.25 eyepieces, with 2 focuser - both 2 eyepieces and 1.25 (through a special . If you found some good surplus lenses, you will have made a stunningly good objective for your scope. But let me see what items I can arrange to make a helical. If you wanted to really go low-profile with this design, Just drill holes in both ends and mount the lenses. This was to allow the circle cutting jig to be attached to the board to cut the arcs from a center point of 25 inches above the ground. Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. An Altitude Azimuth mount would also require a field rotator.There's no way these were taken with an Orion GoTo Mount. Finally, I glued a strip of Ebony Star laminante to the curves edge of each side bearing using contact cement, using a flush edge bit on a router to bring the edge of the laminate even with the edge of the wood after the cement had set. The dimensions of the Tube Box Sides are based on the outer diameter of my tube14 3/16. drneilmb, thanks for sharing the focuser design. Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. 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 then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart 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. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. Having an RS trade counter 2 miles away is such a luxury! The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. You can see that my Moonlite focuser was slightly larger than the sides of the tube. Community Forum Software by IP.BoardLicensed to: Cloudy Nights. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough With Simple, Homemade Telescopes, You Can Explore the Stars (Op-Ed) on Introduction. Fast forward a few months to the next time I had the tube outside. I have several of the books on building a Dobsonian Telescope. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. 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. In the sub-folder "Cases" you will see many variants of the case for the DRV8825 based focusers. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. I was annoyed to have made the mistake, but very glad that I checked the position on stars before wrapping the tube in veneer. Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! 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. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. Maker-written books designed to inform and delight! 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. Orient this assembly to allow you to view an object on the far horizon. Using heavy grit sandpaper I brought back the surface of the keeper enough for the side bearings to fit inside the felt pads. This consists of a small black box of electronics. Plus it comes in black, so Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. I was finishing this inner debate when I got a copy of the book The Dobsonian Telescope by Kriege and Berry as a Christmas gift. Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop Meade Zero Image-Shift Electronic Micro-Focuser This high precision focuser allows you to obtain an extremely accurate image focus. Trim off any unused fabric along the base. 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 tried this one first and found it wouldn't work for my application. in the tube so they'll hit the knitting needle before your drawtube runs It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. At this point, the scope was pretty much finished. That's pretty much the focuser. I then temporarily installed the secondary mirror so that I could measure the approximate distance to the center of the secondary in order to locate the holes for the focuser. Those are the last screws to be tightened. DIY Craford Focuser. Before finishing the tube with a wrap of veneer, I wanted to make sure that the primary was in the correct position. This cost around $100 to build and all of the components came from. 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. 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. The project took several months off and on to complete, although a skilled Maker could put a similar one together in a few weeks. 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. But who cares, really? The belt and pulleys are off-the-shelf items available on Amazon. DIY Remote Telescope Focuser - YouTube I got a different stain, tested it, and went back to work. Once built, line the undersides of the arms with textured ABS plastic as a bearing surface. But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. When you figure out I did not glue the bearings to the tube box in case I needed to adjust the position later. When the skies were dark enough for observing I found that the scope moves easily into position and holds that position well. My secondary is 4; for tips on choosing size, click here. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. I called to express my concern and was told that it had all been packaged a few weeks ago and that it should have been sent. Thanks Bob. 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 focuser is the part of the telescope that holds the eyepiece or camera, and by moving in or out, closer or farther from the . Brandon Lawler is a hobbyist telescope Maker and an active member of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). The company has a reputation for excellent optics, and it was neither the most expensive, nor the least. 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. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. The basic points I wanted to cover: What did I end up with? I only do functional. It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. 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. Interfaced with a computer, so the computer can make the decisions about where the best focus is. Someone is pulling someone's leg here. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. Participated in the Celestron Space Challenge. (Sorry you I want to put my 12.5 mirror in a collapsible structure so I can haul it easy, Say a truss tube design, 7 years ago 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. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. Use mild soap and distilled . 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. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. I'm only hoping to supplement it a bit with some info and pictures aimed at those with limited skills (such as myself) :-) I'm not an electrical engineer, I'm more of a software guy with some limited knowledge of electronics and basic soldering and assembly skills. I also doubled the thickness of the rocker sides (not the front wall) to provide better support for the heavier tube. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube a 3/4" thickness. It To get this arc, I actually moved the radius of the jig in by 1/8 inch. 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. Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat Now attach the screw eyes and the rubber band on the side of the board. Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). eyepiece on the ground (or worse, on your primary mirror!) A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. This simple homemade device will reduce star trails far better than if the camera was mounted on a tripod alone. 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 the legs of the base should be as wide as possible to accommodate weight imbalance as the telescope is moved around, to avoid tipping. You can easily, and economically (10$) build a Crayford Helical Focuser like the one pictured above in one evening with simple tools. 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. All Dobsonian telescope projects are unique buildshere are the notes from my latest version to help get you familiar with the process and determine how youll design yours. I am using scrap upvc pipe material. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. Use the externalMirror Edge Support Calculatorto decide whether to use a two-point, four-point (whiffletree), or sling support. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. Depending on your telescope, one of the Brackets that Robert has may work for you. Star Adventurer Pro Pack Counter Weight Bar Thumb Screw Upgrade. on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. Headers for the LEDs, buzzer (2-pin) and temperature probe (3-pin). Telescope Electronic Focuser : 16 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables Edited by sunrag, 28 May 2020 - 10:44 PM. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. Homage to Homemade Crayford Focusers - Cloudy Nights the drive shaft close against the drawtube. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular Not sure if it is available in the USA. Save over 40% off the annual cover price for a full year (4 issues) of Make. Best Wishes, Reply 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'll use an aluminum tube for the finished draw tube but for now the plastic tube . 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. Your design is simple and nice. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. This unit takes signals from your computer and drives the stepper motor on the focuser. I did find, though, that the 3D printed gear would slip on the shaft, so it needed a set screw. Remember: It is the quality and SIZE of the capture chip, NOT the megapixels that determines quality. To test the concept I used a short piece of two inch PVC for the draw tube. This resulted in a gear that wasn't true and "wobbled" a bit. Unbelievable! Inside the OTA is a ring of tightly fitting flocking paper that prevents any light getting in around the drawtube. 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 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. It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. Obviously an open truss telescope. curated by us, the people behind Make: and the Maker Faire. But, especially on cold evenings, the focus may go out in the middle of the night. love to hear from people who are interested in this focuser design. 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. You will look through these as you rotate the wheel. All in all it seemed like a pretty robust design, so I gave it Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. A smart collection of books, magazines, electronics kits, robots, microcontrollers, tools, supplies, and more I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. 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. 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. Unfortunately I don't have a 3d printer. how much travel you actually need, you can cut the tube off so none of Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. 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 took the whole tube assembly outside. 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. Every primary telescope mirror has a fixed focal length thats usually 4 to 6 times the width of the mirror. I sanded all parts of the telescope with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit, making a very smooth surface to apply the stain. pageTracker._trackPageview(); With Simple | Space Once its cut to length, drill a hole through each end of the tubing with a drill press. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139 Ebony star strips: 2 @ $10 Ebony star ring: $59 Teflon strip: $11 Telrad base: $10 Baltic Birch " sheet (60X60): $42 Baltic Birch 5/8" sheet (60X60): $48 Circle cutting jig: $30 Birch Veneer (4X8 piece): $65 Hardware, stain, other supplies: $80 Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700 like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how 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. SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. : "http://www. The diameter of the focuser is usually indicated in inches. But, like many of you I'm sure, the biggest reason I'm doing this is for the pure geeky fun of it! Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. I I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6" F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. It doesn't. A tilted focuser will have no effect on the image quality. It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. 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. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. More Homemade Refractor Telescope DIY Erecting Prism Binoviewer Focuser here: Did you make this project? Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. Step 4Attaching the Side Bearings and assembling the Rocker. If you're going for simple, have you considered a helical focuser? 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. Start with the small components first. They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. I welded mine from steel square tubing. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. Thanks for your article. As I understand, you are using it for a refractor. Pierre Lemay, thanks for sharing your simple and incredible design. my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. Dobsonian telescopes are popular with amateur telescope makers for their ease of design and construction, portability, and their use of large optical mirrors. Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. On the cutting diagram, you can see that the side bearings were cut 26 inches long. They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. 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. A 6 in primary mirror does not have enough weight to make the dob stable. To cut the circles, I used a router with a straight cutting bit and a circle cutting jig. 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. needle to be just a little too flexible for the weight of a diagonal and If your optical train is heavy and the focuser has to bear it (see above) then this motor may be a better choice. 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. 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. When you're ready to go on to testing with the windows driver, you want "myFP2_DRV8825_312-1", open that folder. As I set of the scope, several club members came over to check things out and it was nice to hear the positive comments on the appearance of the scope. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. Edited by Pierre Lemay, 25 May 2020 - 08:10 AM. I don't *do* pretty. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. 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. needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! I used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. 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. Since my plan called for purchasing the mirrors and mechanical parts there were several decisions to be made and several vendors to contact. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. 11 years ago Building a Homemade Telescope Eyepiece - HubPages I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. 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. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. Because mirror flexure can distort an image, supporting the mirror properly involves building a flotation cell. This combination has the best resolution (steps/revolution), so I didn't see any reason to build anything else. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. I would also like to know about how you can take such fantastic pictures without a field rotator and an autoguider system. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. As I mentioned on my binocular The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. Thin-wall aluminum tubing is used to attach the mirror box to the secondary cage. Most of these have one or two set screws. It turns out that sonotubes are a stock item in 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and sometimes even 16 inch diameters. Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't Today I purchased what is called atank nipple in India. The telescopes size is classified by the size of its mirror. This is the upper tube that contains the flat secondary mirror, Telrad finder, and focuser. accessible by all ages and skill ranges. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion focusers, normally found in this type of device. Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). Install on Windows 10, this part is pretty straightforward. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. a "rubbery" feel. Because thebasic movement and optics requirements are relatively simple, much of the design is left to the builder. The specific hardware used for this is described on the Building page. Some of these are essential for the basic functionalities of our websites. DIY Truss Dob input: How to design truss? I have no idea how much mail this idea will generate, so I can't This motor is available on Amazon. This is the first telescope that I have built. I will post the pic of final focuser once ready. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. Telescope Magazine. Several functions may not work. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. forward and back along with the drawtube when you focus, and you'll get This can be shimmed out with paper wrapped around the As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. Plan ahead by carefully weighing all components and approximating the center mass of the optical assembly. Bill, Impressive work and great idea about LSDF focuser. I made a similar helical focuser with a nice 2 inch thing I found in Classifieds. PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. We all know the problems with focusing. and hope it doesn't fall off The Dob is really a great design. the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. astronowanabe, Pierre Lemay, LarsMalmgren and. the nylon screws going up from the bottom, but I found the knitting larger diameter. Here is a simple 3D printed helical focuser that cost just a few cents (assuming you have a 3D printer). Measure the diameter of the exposed shaft. on Introduction. Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope. The focuser is very smooth. This motor is available on Amazon. 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. Given any mirror measurements, PLOP will provide the ideal support layout and how much distortion to expect for any number of flotation points. The Crayford Focuser and DIY Focuser for Homemade Telescope I want to make this direct drive system work. on Step 5, After much debit and doubt i have taken the photos down cause i cannot be 100% sure that they were taking from my scope as i was not there to verify them and i do not want my contest entry to be based on photos and not the build process. The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. In order to check your measurements, you can construct jigs for your mirror cell and secondary cage, positioning them on a straight, adjustable track such as 2 planks of wood. Pretty dry but important! Earthbound1 likes this #2 dave brock Mercury-Atlas I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!!