homemade telescope focuser

I am thankful to enjoy the inspiration, and the details, that you provide, as I will soon be constructing a Dobsonian Telescope. The side bearings are each made from 2 identical semicircles of 5/8 inch plywood glued together to make a thickness of 1 inches. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. A free program that lights childrens creative fires and allows them to explore projects in areas such as arts & I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). After waiting for the contact cement to dry to the touch, and with my wife's help, I carefully aligned the edge of the veneer with the guideline on the tube and pressed the first inch together. My wife helped me by moving the mirror into and out of the tube around the marked spot while I stood at the eyepiece trying to bring some distant trees into focus. The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. 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. The cell from Anttler's, for which I had received a refund, had arrived. We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. To view, go here: http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. off the bearings. 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. That evening I spent most of my time rediscovering the many DSOs around Sagittarius, especially the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula. DIY Craford Focuser. 1" Rack & Pinion Focuser. Dobsonians come in all shapes and sizes, from small 4-8 builds all the way up to massive 24-36 creations. 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. 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. Rock on! Slide the eyepiece into the focuser and try it out. I do it with aluminium alloy, aluminium tube and nice work. I had chosen a boxy, rigid design for the binocular scope, so I sanded all parts of the telescope with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit, making a very smooth surface to apply the stain. I tried to call, but the voice mail had a recording stating that the customer was unable to receive messages. Gift the gift of Make: Magazine this holiday season! 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. SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. knob, and a drill press to make sure the hole for the knitting needle 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. Finally it was etched in caustic soda, and anodised matt black. Dozens of projects in every issue covering electronics, craft, fabrication, and more, Learn tips and skill-building tutorials from experts in the maker community. Put it all together 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.) (Technically, it should have been 62.5 for a 12.5 inch f/5, but when the mirror came it had a note on the back that the focal length was 61 inches.) The holes in the main bracket the match the holes in the plate are oversize to allow for this alignment. Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal 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. Other supplies that I bought for this project include wood, various bits of hardware, stain and finishing supplies, and a circle cutting jig for a router. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube If you're not familiar with Arduino, watch some tutorial videos. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. 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. 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. 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! Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. Connect the Arduino USB cable and upload some test sketches. It turns out that sonotubes are a stock item in 8 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch, and sometimes even 16 inch diameters. 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. You should watch (and bookmark) this video. Then it was time to stain and finish. forward and back along with the drawtube when you focus, and you'll get tube and nut that fits the outside threads. I wanted a tight / press fit, so I only added half that, 0.25mm. I told them to take their time and get it right. And you can tell it's not a mosaic because the stars at the corners show coma/field curvature artifacts. My other telescope is a Celestron NexStar C6E. Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). You should now be able to drill the 4 holes at each corner. I was certain not to move the jig at all before cutting the second circle. focuser. The mirror cell: University Optics (eventually). I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. Attach the ball head to the top board. The wood would cost the same, as would pretty much everything except the mirror, so why not spend a little more on the mirror and go BIG. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. Make the drawtube longer than you think you'll need, just in 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. corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. 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. Post 10 of the same LSDF focuser thread also links to Art Bianconi's archived 2008 original flush valve focuser posts. Just to make sure I liked the stain, I applied some to a piece of scrap wood. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. I told them to take their time and get it right. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. This project is based on Robert Brown's "Arduino ASCOM Focuser Pro2 DIY". Again from the main FILES page, go to "ASCOM DRIVERS" and download everything. This NEMA-17 direct drive stepper motor is available from Adafruit and many other sellers. ill ask him for a detailed list of what he used and when i get that ill post it here for you. As I mentioned on my binocular It has reminded me of one of my long term aims to make a telescope that has been buried by the demands of the rest of my life! If you don't want to go that route, contact me at gary.hethcoat@gmail.com since I have a lot of spare parts and I can sell you a "kit" with a PCB and only the parts you need. Here is a link to the main FILES area on Robert Brown's site. Motion is very smooth. I've been using the above pair Two inch internal diameter drawtube. I also decided to make a separate mounting plate for the stepper motor, since I figured aligning the shafts precisely would be all but impossible. 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 will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. This one is based on the DRV8825 driver chip and a NEMA-17 stepper motor. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. 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. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. astronowanabe, Pierre Lemay, LarsMalmgren and. If you're not using heavy eyepieces, you probably don't need This means you lose much of the night's images. 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. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. Secondary mirror with spider holder Search on eBay for a matched set. 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. It If you want a Crayford focuser with a knob instead of turning the draw tube, then Jerry Oltion's designhttp://www.jerryoltixycrayfords.htm using box frames and knitting needle drive shafts is also a fairly easy build. 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. 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. really stiff and light for their size, and even though a #2 is pretty I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. Two inch internal diameter drawtube. I read the entire thread and surely its going to help me building my focuser. I was still doing some construction on the morning of the event, but I succeeded in making first light on that clear, dark night in late July. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? Our websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience. You can easily, and economically (10$) build a Crayford Helical Focuser like the one pictured above in one evening with simple tools. 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 11 years ago The next day, I called back to ask their opinion about the kind of spider and secondary holder to order. both sides. focusers for that project. I am well versed in technology, have all the tools necessary to build my own! (I didn't have the primary mirror yet). After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. I called in the order and explained that I would be using a mirror two inches thick. I decided to order a mirror cell from them because the owner had talked about a new cell he was excited about. on Step 1, interesting build, its just like my old Odyssey brand scope from the mid 1990's. Pioneered by John Dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a Newtonian reflector telescope with a unique two-axis movable base. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. After another 3 weeks, I was concerned that I had not received the mirror. Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. You will need to order one sized for your telescope's focuser shaft size. 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. Built one of these http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ working really well only cost less than 40.00. Robert is a super guy and more than willing to help those who choose to follow in his footsteps. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. Share a cool tool or product with the community. I used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. 11 years ago Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. The only thing on the list that was a bit difficult to find was baltic birch plywood, which had to be special ordered from the lumber yard. 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. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. 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. I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. 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. If you're going for simple, have you considered a helical focuser? I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. Dobsonian telescopes are popular with amateur telescope makers for their ease of design and construction, portability, and their use of large optical mirrors. 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. 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. Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine today, Community access, print, and digital Magazine, and more. This book describes in great detail the steps to build a large aperture truss tube dob, focusing on scopes with a 12.5 to 40 inch mirror. Im quite happy with the result, and the view in its large mirror is phenomenal. I took the whole tube assembly outside. Here is what I was working on but looks like I need a better design. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. Parts List (the full story of acquiring the parts), The primary, secondary, spider and secondary holderDiscovery Optics. The base of the telescope should be a wide, sturdy square or circle of wood with teflon bearing pads matched to the ABS plastic ring of the rocker box. Realizing that it could not be the University Optics cell already, I thought, Noit couldn't be but, in fact, it was. Remember: It is the quality and SIZE of the capture chip, NOT the megapixels that determines quality. my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't I file a dispute with Paypal to begin the process of getting my money back. initiatives for the next generation of makers. My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. They use a simple plywood mirror cell, stating that for an 8 inch mirror this cell will be adequate. 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. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. His project is very well documented. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. When the skies were dark enough for observing I found that the scope moves easily into position and holds that position well. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion Many sources point out that 10 inches is a kind of sweet spot in the balance between power and portability. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. 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. 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. 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 currently have javascript disabled. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. Download the Gerber Files. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. Sew the seam, and sew an elastic cord into the top to secure it to the secondary cage. Carve out a hole on the top part of the sonotube first. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. My guess is that photo was taken with a refractor. you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. Thanks again for the 'ible. a "rubbery" feel. It took about 3 weeks but, since Anttler's did not even reply to the Paypal dispute, I received a Paypal refund. This is my copy of the telescope that Sir Isaac Newton presented to the Royal Society of London in 1671, and is considered to be the first successful reflecting telescope. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. (A badly tilted focuser may subtly alter the illumination pattern of the focal plane to a degree that would be impossible to perceive visually but that's about it.) Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. Measure the diameter of the exposed shaft. i am not trying to win this contest with photos. ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? Picture of DS-4. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. 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. DO NOT drill out the holes in the board! Earthbound1 likes this #2 dave brock Mercury-Atlas on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. I added three inches for a margin of error and in case I need to rebalance the tube in the future, making a distance of 25 inches from the balance point of the tube to the rocker bottom. I would also like to know about how you can take such fantastic pictures without a field rotator and an autoguider system. This combination has the best resolution (steps/revolution), so I didn't see any reason to build anything else. Trim off any unused fabric along the base. A project collaboration and documentation platform. The premier publication of maker projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews, and inspirational stories, Un-real!!! It seems to Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. So, am curious to see what others have designed and built and proud to show off here on the homage to Crayford thread. Several of my Recent Images have been focused with this system. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. The overall project is super cheap, we're building this thing for something like $50 in materials. The cost is a bit more than some of the other combinations, but by only $10 or $20. 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. You need a drawtube of course. So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. Thanks Peter. While I applaud your building of a homemade Dob, (giving you the FULL benefit of the doubt here) your "friend" has provided photographs that make it look like you're trying to win by cheating. by cranking Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. After another 3 weeks, I was concerned that I had not received the mirror. : "http://www. 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. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart On the cutting diagram, you can see that the side bearings were cut 26 inches long. Did you make this project? 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 focuser shaft on the telescope is 13.1mm in diameter. I had nearly completed the base and put things together for the first time. I did find, though, that the 3D printed gear would slip on the shaft, so it needed a set screw. It is size 1.25 inch with a clear inside dia-meter. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. In my case I decided to make a custom bracket. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. Or rather, I hated it. . Best Wishes, Reply They said they would make the brackets extra long to accommodate the mirror and it would take about a week. While round tubing is sturdy, square tubing is easier to work with. The secondary holder is adjustable, so I could didn't have to get the location perfect. Perfect for visual observations with very heavy mirrors. 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. The mirror itself must also be able to tilt in three dimensions in order to aim its light at the secondary mirror (a process called collimation). I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. I don't *do* pretty. (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.) When they arrived, they were beautifully and carefully packaged with the secondary already installed in its holder. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. . This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. The hole is made slightly larger than the shaft, this is normal. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. A week later the cell arrived (on schedule) from University Optics. Orion Dynamo Mini for powering a Nexstar 6SE? Once built, line the undersides of the arms with textured ABS plastic as a bearing surface. The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. 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. I'm' glad I did, because I didn't like the first color that I had chosen. Quick demo of my motorized focuser, and I will create a detailed tutorial if enough people are interested. Find a special something for the makers in your life. 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. The bearings only need to be Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. It 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. I did not wrap the tube until I had completed the base. To get this arc, I actually moved the radius of the jig, At some point in the building process, my goal became to finish the scope by RocheStar Fest, an annual event of the. But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. 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. Unfortunately I don't have a 3d printer. together tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators across the globe. The project creator Robert Brown made a good video on testing the board. a 3/4" thickness. I set things up in daylight and collimated the scope. I welded mine from steel square tubing. At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat 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. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . 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. The focal length of the mirror is 61 inches. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. 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. After cutting the circles for the side bearings, I set up the jig to cut the curved edges of the rocker sides. 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. 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 . And a couple of upright bearing blocks. There was the expense, for one, but also the 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. 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.

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