on Introduction. The drawings are only approximately to scale. I'll use an aluminum tube for the finished draw tube but for now the plastic tube . It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough I also doubled the thickness of the rocker sides (not the front wall) to provide better support for the heavier tube. "https://ssl." I like the old way of using stepper motors and other stuff introduced years ago by Mel Bartels, he is a master for me. a "rubbery" feel. 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. Use mild soap and distilled . Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. You simply glue or screw the 'nut' part to your scope OTA, and thread the tube part in/out to focus. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart 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. If you're not using heavy eyepieces, you probably don't need You can view and download the full file here. Post 10 of the same LSDF focuser thread also links to Art Bianconi's archived 2008 original flush valve focuser posts. It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. An electronic focuser, which moves the focus knob through a combination of hardware and software, solves this problem. They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. The plastic will ride on teflon pads, creating just enough traction for the telescope to avoid sliding on its own while not making it too difficult to point at things in the sky. 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. Best Wishes, Reply The version number "312" here may change if Robert posts new firmware. If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. . flexing. As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. 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. It was easy enough to drill a hole and tap threads for a I decided to order an aluminum mirror cell from University Optics instead so that the mirror could be supported at 9 different points. needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without This simple homemade device will reduce star trails far better than if the camera was mounted on a tripod alone. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. After looking at many focuser options with a big range of prices, I decided to order a GSO 2 speed Crayford focuser from ScopeStuff. 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. They eyepiece height ended up being about 5'10" high at zenith. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. There are sub-folders for the different versions. The focal length of the mirror is 61 inches. I tried to call, but the voice mail had a recording stating that the customer was unable to receive messages. 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. This consists of a small black box of electronics. Then it was time to stain and finish. His passion is using CAD design and his homemade CNC router to bring large wood projects to life. Participated in the Celestron Space Challenge. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. Using a compass, I drew lines for the inside and outside of the Ebony Star ring on the top and bottom of the rocker bottom. And a flat thing to put it all on I took the whole tube assembly outside. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". Deep space photos like these require HOURS of exposure for each one. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. This combination has the best resolution (steps/revolution), so I didn't see any reason to build anything else. The holes in the main bracket the match the holes in the plate are oversize to allow for this alignment. The pieces were cut down to 15 3/8 and 14 3/8, allowing just under 1/8 inch on each side. My first telescope I built was a 10" F8. I drew a guide line straight down the side of the tube and cut the veneer to length with one extra inch on each side68 inches long. wobbly knob still works, and adds character. 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. 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. 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. The bearings only need to be My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. Thanks again for the 'ible. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. This project is based on Robert Brown's "Arduino ASCOM Focuser Pro2 DIY". on Step 3. You reach a point where the picture doesn't seem to change much, so you never know where the very sweetest spot in the focus is. In the sub-folder "Cases" you will see many variants of the case for the DRV8825 based focusers. The side bearings are each made from 2 identical semicircles of 5/8 inch plywood glued together to make a thickness of 1 inches. Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. Once the pieces were cut and I held them around the tube, I decided to cut them a bit smaller because the extra space was too much. A project collaboration and documentation platform. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. 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. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. 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. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. Nice one. my thoughts naturally gravitated toward a boxy focuser to go with it. 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. Rock on! If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. I'm' glad I did, because I didn't like the first color that I had chosen. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. an eyepiece. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. The part is very strong! 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 ARtemis module came in a kit form actually just two circuit boards one of which I had to source the parts, build and box myself. This motor is available on Amazon. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. Although they don't usually sell these parts, because I had ordered the mirrors from them they offered to sell me the spider and secondary holder that they use in their scopes. DIY Truss Dob input: How to design truss? I decided to order a mirror cell from them because the owner had talked about a new cell he was excited about. Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine today, Community access, print, and digital Magazine, and more. It's easy to shim it to Over how many nights did this photography session take place? The hole did need to be enlarged slightly by moving the bit within the hole , but in the end, the fit seems right. The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. The belt and pulleys are off-the-shelf items available on Amazon. Drawing lines between opposite corners of the tube box sides allowed me to locate the center point on each side. Two different construction supply companies told me that sonotubes were not available with a 14 inch diameter, even by special order. 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. Plus it comes in black, so 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. This proved fatal for the stepper motor! These have slop as you change direction, you can't do fine adjustments, they weigh a ton, and can flex alarmingly over time. If you wanted to really go low-profile with this design, Carve out a hole on the top part of the sonotube first. This unit takes signals from your computer and drives the stepper motor on the focuser. Your design is simple and nice. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. Featured in the February, 2015 issue of Sky & 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 . 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. Low, or Zero slop when changing direction. forces the knitting needle against the drawtube and the drawtube against Download and unzip. This means I can use FocusMax to do the focusing. spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.) 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. 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. Make the hole diameter fairly snug, too. 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. The Artemis module works extremely well, and is to be strongly recommended. Only problem is if I put a diagonal it wants to rotate the helical part. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. Thanks for the great comment. I described it two years ago in this thread:https://www.cloudyniuser/?p=8879835 . I marked the expected position of the secondary by measuring 61 inches down from the end of the tube. Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. really stiff and light for their size, and even though a #2 is pretty Just drill holes in both ends and mount the lenses. 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. Along with some silver bits Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope. To get a slide-fit in a 3D printed part, you normally make the hole 0.5mm larger than the shaft. I carefully cut exactly through the center of each side bearing circle to make my semicircles. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. Your astrophotographer friend may have included his own images from his setup. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip". PVC pipe makes great drawtubes. I applied contact cement to the first inch of the veneer and the mating inch of the tube. 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. It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. I made a similar helical focuser with a nice 2 inch thing I found in Classifieds. 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. 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. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. with a genuine question or comment about the design. Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. Let me see if I can get similar plumbing parts here. 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. 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. the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". Meade Zero Image-Shift Electronic Micro-Focuser This high precision focuser allows you to obtain an extremely accurate image focus. the bearings, totally eliminating any flex. 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. Several functions may not work. By adjusting the bolts, the mirror can be pointed toward the correct spot. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. They're fairly once. 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 didn't bother reading his whole article to figure out what f/# he used) I am not trying to say that good AP isn't possible with a sonotube scope, (the 'friend' may very well have pulled it out of the dob mount, added rings and a dovetail, and mounted it on his CGE-Pro or comparable) but in this case it is unlikely.". Since my plan called for purchasing the mirrors and mechanical parts there were several decisions to be made and several vendors to contact. When you're ready to go on to testing with the windows driver, you want "myFP2_DRV8825_312-1", open that folder. 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. larger diameter. I hate focusing. } 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. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. 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 rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. 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. Read the documentation though, there are a lot of functions and options. 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. knitting needle where it goes through the hole, so it's not a big deal, I also figured that the extra expense was worth it, considering the amount of money I was investing in the project overall. This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. 100A81BF-2145-44D5-BC76-66DBF43BAD58.jpeg. 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. I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. 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. Picture of DS-4. As the telescope tilts toward the horizon, the mirror must be supported on its edge. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. that is a great website that guy has some fantastic photos. on Introduction. I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. Sonotube (14 inch diameter, 12 feet long): $70, Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139, Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. (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.) Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in ScopeStuff is awesome!! needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to You should watch (and bookmark) this video. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. Part numbers 351-4574 and 336-422. Electronics and software automate the process of taking pictures. 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock, http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255. That's pretty much the focuser. It was important that the two circles be identical because the edges had to match perfectly when glued together and the two side bearings had to be identical in order for the altitude motion to work well. 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. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. Did you make this project? Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. Share it with us! All i did was supply the telescope as far as his camera equipment i dont know what he used i never saw it all i know is he had my scope for about a month while i was traveling and he gave me these photos. It turns out that sonotubes are a stock item in 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and sometimes even 16 inch diameters. It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree. But, like many of you I'm sure, the biggest reason I'm doing this is for the pure geeky fun of it! (Sorry you Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. Newton, and others including James Gregory and Laurent Cassegrain, believed that a reflecting telescope would not be affected by the chromatic aberration that affected . ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? 10 inch or 12 inch. The one company that did provide a price quoted over $500more than I was willing to pay for cardboard! The next day, I called back to ask their opinion about the kind of spider and secondary holder to order. A bit of a monster! If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. This combination has proved to be effective for all positions except when the tube is pointed directly up.