homemade telescope focuser
Accordingly, with 1.25 focuser, you can use 1.25 eyepieces, with 2 focuser - both 2 eyepieces and 1.25 (through a special . The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. It took yet another call a week later for the items to actually be mailed. 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. My telescope is the Orion ED80T-CF. 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. Fast forward a few months to the next time I had the tube outside. This is where you will use screws to strongly attach the focuser onto the tube. The extra force will also 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. My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. Un-real!!! The telescopes size is classified by the size of its mirror. 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. When you figure out The rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to 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. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular Participated in the Celestron Space Challenge. There are sub-folders for the different versions. The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more. Electronics and software automate the process of taking pictures. $299.99 More About Telescope Focusers Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. The cost is a bit more than some of the other combinations, but by only $10 or $20. We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. Given any mirror measurements, PLOP will provide the ideal support layout and how much distortion to expect for any number of flotation points. Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. But who cares, really? 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. 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. 8 years ago Using a compass I drew circles on the top and bottom of the ground board to mark the inside and outside of the teflon ring on the bottom of the rocker bottom. I hate focusing. Very simple and portable. I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. The secondary holder is adjustable, so I could didn't have to get the location perfect. Im sorry to hear you couldn't make the contest. This simple homemade device will reduce star trails far better than if the camera was mounted on a tripod alone. flexing. the drive shaft close against the drawtube. I did not glue the bearings to the tube box in case I needed to adjust the position later. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. I like the old way of using stepper motors and other stuff introduced years ago by Mel Bartels, he is a master for me. If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. larger diameter. While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. There was the expense, for one, but also the . Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project - focusing is now a joy. on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. The hole is made slightly larger than the shaft, this is normal. 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. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. That's pretty much the focuser. 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. 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. One of the neat things about the square design is that the The holes in the main bracket the match the holes in the plate are oversize to allow for this alignment. corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. 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. Rock on! 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. After looking at many focuser options with a big range of prices, I decided to order a GSO 2 speed Crayford focuser from ScopeStuff. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. 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. Sh2-169 and Sh2-168, IC5146 Cocoon Nebula, Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125. 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. Several clamps were used to hold the pieces together overnight. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. But, like many of you I'm sure, the biggest reason I'm doing this is for the pure geeky fun of it! 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. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. Now attach the screw eyes and the rubber band on the side of the board. I I really had to, since the underside of my telescope's focuser is all curves, no flat area for attaching the mounting bracket. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. Drill the holes for the knitting - Bill. I welded mine from steel square tubing. See above, this motor does not produce a lot of torque, but you don't need much for this application since there is no 'load' on the focusing shaft. 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 Dozens of projects in every issue covering electronics, craft, fabrication, and more, Learn tips and skill-building tutorials from experts in the maker community. 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. 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. you could probably space the bearings 3/4" apart instead of 1" and mount Move the jigs until you can comfortably place a variety of eyepieces in the focuser and get a sharp image, then carefully measure the separation distances. These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. I decided to keep this tube for now and if I run into problems with it, I can replace it later. My secondary is 4; for tips on choosing size, click here. Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). Plus it comes in black, so needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. I'll use an aluminum tube for the finished draw tube but for now the plastic tube . 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. both sides. 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. See captioned photos 22-25 here:https://www.cloudyniractor-focuser/ for more detail on building a flush valve focuser, as Bob mentions. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! Some of these are essential for the basic functionalities of our websites. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. The part is very strong! At some point in the building process, my goal became to finish the scope by RocheStar Fest, an annual event of the Rochester Astronomy Club. I This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. The core of the telescope, the steel mirror cell holds and adjusts the heavy, curved primary mirror. I laughed, packed up the cell with a long letter describing the series of events that led to the return, and put it in the mail. Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. After a dry fit of the rocker to make sure that the tube box with side bearings would fit well, I glued the rocker sides to the rocker front, holding them in place with small nails and clamping overnight. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. Share it with us! During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. 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. in the tube so they'll hit the knitting needle before your drawtube runs It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. 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 . Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). 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. The silly colours are mainly due to me experimenting with various clothes dyes in the anodising. Plan ahead by carefully weighing all components and approximating the center mass of the optical assembly. Building the mirror box is tricky, because the entire optical assembly (mirror cell, mirror box, trusses, secondary cage) must balance at the center of rotation of the arms. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. 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. you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). Built one of these http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ working really well only cost less than 40.00. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus once. . Dobsonian telescopes are popular with amateur telescope makers for their ease of design and construction, portability, and their use of large optical mirrors. 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. I redrilled the holes for the mirror cell and got ready to wrap it. This is the kind of simple off the shelf design I was looking for. 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. on Step 1, Richards in our local astronomy club. 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. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. If the telescope rotates forward or backward on its own, then the mirror box is too deep or too shallow. I marked the expected position of the secondary by measuring 61 inches down from the end of the tube. I told them I was on my way. After waiting for the stain to dry for a day, I applied polyurethane in two coats, going over the surface with 0000 steel wool between coats. You can view and download the full file here. It was May 12th. His passion is using CAD design and his homemade CNC router to bring large wood projects to life. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. Made of plywood, the rocker box supports the mirror box on 1 teflon pads, allowing it to rotate vertically. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). 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. Line the underside of the rocker box with a ring of ABS plastic to allow it to ride on the base. The premier publication of maker projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews, and inspirational stories, Some quick tips to note if you are making a homemade telescope are: 1. on Introduction. This is the upper tube that contains the flat secondary mirror, Telrad finder, and focuser. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. The specific hardware used for this is described on the Building page. After the glue dried but before the clamps were removed, I added corner braces to all four corners of the tube using glue and brads to hold them in place. This proved fatal for the stepper motor! on Step 1, interesting build, its just like my old Odyssey brand scope from the mid 1990's. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers Nice work and great instructable! After picking up a copy of The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege, I built my first telescope with a 12-diameter mirror, then later tackled a 12 lightweight scope. control. This means you lose much of the night's images. The next day, I called back to ask their opinion about the kind of spider and secondary holder to order. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. I told them to take their time and get it right. Best Wishes, Reply Using heavy grit sandpaper I brought back the surface of the keeper enough for the side bearings to fit inside the felt pads. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. Bill, Impressive work and great idea about LSDF focuser. This means I can use FocusMax to do the focusing. 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. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. This is the mirror box for my 16", with Jim doing a bit of cleanup sanding. 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. As it turned out, the mirror cell was too large to fit into my 14 inch sonotube. I would love to see your build when you are finished with it . I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. 10 years ago Look down through the empty focuser. In order for the Rocker Box to pivot on the Ground Board, a center pin is placed in a hole at the exact center of the Ground Board and Rocker Bottom. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. So I was looking for a cheap, light-but-sturdy design for a A week later the cell arrived (on schedule) from University Optics. Just as it was about to come into focus, the focuser bottomed out. I do it with aluminium alloy, aluminium tube and nice work. var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1008534-4"); The focuser knob had two set screws. PVC pipe makes great drawtubes. Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). Several functions may not work. Robert Brown did an excellent video on how to work out your stepper motor requirements. Most people will want a knob on surfaces to put the bearings in and a vee at the bottom that would hold think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. 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. 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. 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. His project is very well documented. Your astrophotographer friend may have included his own images from his setup. Many sources point out that 10 inches is a kind of sweet spot in the balance between power and portability. If you connect the 12V power with the barrel connector (right side of photo), the Nano should light up without the USB connection. Thank you for your pages. You currently have javascript disabled. Realizing that it could not be the University Optics cell already, I thought, Noit couldn't be but, in fact, it was. It took about 3 weeks but, since Anttler's did not even reply to the Paypal dispute, I received a Paypal refund. 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. on Step 5. 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. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. Unfortunately I don't have a 3d printer. 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. and hope it doesn't fall off I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? If you mess up, you can turn the hole into a slot, but avoid Because thebasic movement and optics requirements are relatively simple, much of the design is left to the builder. Picture of DS-4. I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6" F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. Depending on your telescope, one of the Brackets that Robert has may work for you. To do this, the mirror cell needs to be supported by 3 large bolts, at least 2 of which are adjustable. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. Then it was time to stain and finish. 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. The Artemis module works extremely well, and is to be strongly recommended. And a flat thing to put it all on drneilmb, thanks for sharing the focuser design. Pierre Lemay, thanks for sharing your simple and incredible design. an eyepiece. and an eyepiece. on Step 5, 9 years ago I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. The pivot bolt consists of a 1 1/8 inch brass spacer with an 11/16 inch outer diameter, a 3/8 inch bolt 2 inches long, a stop nut, and two large washers. 10 inch or 12 inch. 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.