In scaling up the K/B 8 inch design, I made a few changes that, I hope, will improve the design for 12.5 inch aperture. 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. 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. As the authors describe the benefits of a truss design, it is hard to dispute their arguments. together tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators across the globe. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular 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. Featured in the February, 2015 issue of Sky & You can see that my Moonlite focuser was slightly larger than the sides of the tube. Please feel free to email me at the address on the right. I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. It just 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. surfaces to put the bearings in and a vee at the bottom that would hold and hope it doesn't fall off 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. 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. Also, I will work with my computer geek buddies, so that we eventually automate it using Linux on a Rock64, to run kstars for tracking, on INDI. 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. 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. 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. DIY Craford Focuser. You really need a step ladder even for my 10" when pointed overhead. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. 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.". Did you make this project? Cost is $25 - $30, and you will have 5 PCBs in about a week. Maker-written books designed to inform and delight! The Focuser and other items: (Scope Stuff). I decided to order a mirror cell from them because the owner had talked about a new cell he was excited about. it sticks into your light path. Find a special something for the makers in your life. Unbelievable! Thin 1/16 Kydex plastic should be cut to length to line the inside of the cage as a baffle to block outside light. I began building it in the spring of 2008, but the bulk of the work was done in July of 2008 with first light occurring on July 25. I sourced my own Stepper motor and 1:150 reduction gearbox from RS, who are just up the road. I applied contact cement to the first inch of the veneer and the mating inch of the tube. You need to order it sized for your focuser shaft size. This allowed me to cut perfect identical circles. ill ask him for a detailed list of what he used and when i get that ill post it here for you. On the cutting diagram, you can see that the side bearings were cut 26 inches long. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). 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. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. The mirror box encloses the mirror cell and allows the entire telescope to rotate vertically. Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. Im sorry to hear you couldn't make the contest. 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. If you enter it in the next contest please let me know and i will make sure to vote for you. Im quite happy with the result, and the view in its large mirror is phenomenal. I did find, though, that the 3D printed gear would slip on the shaft, so it needed a set screw. 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. But, especially on cold evenings, the focus may go out in the middle of the night. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. Thicker knitting needles would be even But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. To place the primary mirror, I installed the secondary and installed the primary in the mirror cell. he might just have a $3200 camera, they aren't very hard to come by. If not, you may need to design and print your own bracket(s), gears, and so on. That evening I spent most of my time rediscovering the many DSOs around Sagittarius, especially the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula. I called in the order and explained that I would be using a mirror two inches thick. Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. I was certain not to move the jig at all before cutting the second circle. document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); My guess is that photo was taken with a refractor. work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. 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. In the sub-folder "Cases" you will see many variants of the case for the DRV8825 based focusers. We all know the problems with focusing. On that noteWARNING:do not look directly into the sun and never point a telescope into the sun without proper filtration you can damage your telescope and burn your retinas and possibly go blind i am not a astrophotographer so i cant comment on the quality of the pictures since there is so much doubt on the photos i will gladly take them down. There are sub-folders for the different versions. 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. All Orion 1.25" and 2" telescope focusers are engineered to provide smooth drawtube action to ensure you hit the exact focus point . Share it with us! At their suggestion, I also ordered a 2.6 inch secondary mirror. If you follow the procedures described above, your telescope's optics will be perfectly aligned. Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. Yet I was also becoming infected with aperture fever. 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. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. I knew that I would be returning the mirror cell to them, but just for fun I decided to see how it would fit in the tube. accessible by all ages and skill ranges. 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. I attached keepers 1 inches wide by 5 inches long, extending above the bottom of the arcs by about 1 inches. We use cookies to continuously improve our websites for you and optimize its design and customization. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. Use mild soap and distilled . Tips If you've got a 1.25 inch focuser, You can also use it for an objective. Using heavy grit sandpaper I brought back the surface of the keeper enough for the side bearings to fit inside the felt pads. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. 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. Pretty dry but important! 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. The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. It is not very powerful, it will not supply enough torque if you put any load on it or have a heavy optical train (like I do) and the focuser has to "pull" it upward when the telescope is vertical. I used the "LEDandBuzzer" and "TestStepsDRV8825" tests. There are some test sketches in the "Tests" folder, start with those. The part is very strong! The project took several months off and on to complete, although a skilled Maker could put a similar one together in a few weeks. Staples or finishing nails work fine, but be sure they dont bump up above the surface of the plastic. That's pretty much the focuser. While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. The Crayford focuser is a simplified focusing mechanism for amateur astronomical telescopes. Link to the motor speed controller kit:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KC5225(a 5K external potentiometer will be required): http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=RP3508The drive motor:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=YG2734The gears:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=YG2736The motor forward/reverse switch:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ST0506The push button:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SP0711 Place the focuser, draw the position of the screws with a pencil and remove the focuser. 3D Printed Futuristic Space Age Wall Clock, http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255. Just drill holes in both ends and mount the lenses. Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. You need a drawtube of course. 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. The cage should be a hollow cylinder about wider than the mirror, with the focuser mounted directly facing the secondary mirror. I bought a 4" PVC Sewer pipe cap, used a hole saw to cut a 2.25" hole then attached the helical thing to the PVC cap. This means I can use FocusMax to do the focusing. (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.) If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". 11 years ago I also wanted to strengthen and protect the cardboard tube. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't PVC pipe makes great drawtubes. The email bounced back to me. on Introduction. - Bill. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. A couple setscrews and you're up & running with an off the shelf solution. (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.) Sonotube (14 inch diameter, 12 feet long): $70, Focuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139, Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700. 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'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. (I didn't have the primary mirror yet). Finally it was etched in caustic soda, and anodised matt black. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. Before you do this, the stepper motor will probably move, but it will make a 'stuttering' sound instead of moving smoothly. I described it two years ago in this thread:https://www.cloudyniuser/?p=8879835 . Over how many nights did this photography session take place? I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! Two of the holes for the bolts were blocked by knobs. 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. Frustrated by these difficulties, I stopped by one more hardware store to ask for advice. You will need to remove the regular focus knob on your telescope's focuser. As I mentioned on my binocular Deep space photos like these require HOURS of exposure for each one. Community Forum Software by IP.BoardLicensed to: Cloudy Nights. 11 years ago 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. The rocker arms must also have guides to keep it on the track; flat metal 12 braces lined with ABS plastic work nicely. It's rigid, lightweight, and #@$%^#@!!!!! 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. 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 will look through these as you rotate the wheel. 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. can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart With the DRV8825 and Arduino Nano plugged in, the basic board is complete. This is the first telescope that I have built. The balance point determines the height of the rocker sides, so I had to get this far before I cut the wood for the base. a try. But, like many of you I'm sure, the biggest reason I'm doing this is for the pure geeky fun of it! I told them to take their time and get it right. 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). microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. DO NOT drill out the holes in the board! As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. 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. Let me see if I can get similar plumbing parts here. narrow the frame. 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. 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. But let me see what items I can arrange to make a helical. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. During on-site assembly, attach each truss to its mounting T-nut using a bolt with a thumbscrew knob. I suspected that the company was either in trouble or no longer in business. Position "0" is with the focuser all the way IN (at least for a refractor). It may need some careful coaxing with a screwdriver. like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how They eyepiece height ended up being about 5'10" high at zenith. I drilled holes for the screws that avoided the location of the ring, and attached the rocker bottom. 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. They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. I had considered using a clear finish alone, but decided to use a dark red finish on the base and a clear finish on the tube, just because I like the look. I think I got what I wanted and seems best solution for me. the bearings right at the edge of the frame, reducing the frame to SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. I then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement. Just as it was about to come into focus, the focuser bottomed out. tube and nut that fits the outside threads. This might have been tempting if I wanted to build a 6 inch scopeat that size, they say that first-timers do pretty well at grinding and figuring their own optics. This consists of a small black box of electronics. 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. . 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. 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. Measure the diameter of the exposed shaft. Bore out some 2.5 inch bar and mill a flat down the side making sure it is lined up. 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. They're fairly Someone is pulling someone's leg here. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. 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. There are a number of technical reasons why these photographs could not have come from this Optical Tube Assembly. It is used to setup water outlet from overhead water tanks. I had chosen a boxy, rigid design for the binocular scope, so My telescope is the Orion ED80T-CF. 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. However more than the focuser, I liked your scope. The specific hardware used for this is described on the Building page. So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. The original Crayford Focuser is on display there. The next day my wife called me at work to tell me a box had arrived with telescope stuff. Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!). Lining up this center point with the center of the top of the side bearing, I brought the corner of the side bearing up to the edge of the tube box and attached it with screws. astronowanabe, Pierre Lemay, LarsMalmgren and. The lumber yard also gave me a lower price than I expected. Thanks again for the 'ible. The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to Connect the Arduino USB cable and upload some test sketches. So, as they say, "back to the drawing board". This is the kind of simple off the shelf design I was looking for. We moved the operation to a nearby park and got a focused image of the most distant trees (300-400 yards away) quite easily. We then spread contact cement over the remaining veneer and tube surface, waited for the glue to dry, and carefully rolled the tube over the veneer. Before finishing the tube with a wrap of veneer, I wanted to make sure that the primary was in the correct position. I sanded all parts of the telescope with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit, making a very smooth surface to apply the stain. Make the hole diameter fairly snug, too.