#Big telescope drawing full#
Parts List (the full story of acquiring the parts) 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. Since my plan called for purchasing the mirrors and mechanical parts there were several decisions to be made and several vendors to contact. Once I had my design set, I was ready to buy the parts. Total cost for supplies for this project: $1700 Sonotube (14 inch diameter, 12 feet long): $70įocuser (GSO 2 speed low profile Crayford): $139 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 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. As I continued to read, however, I was struck by the many complications of the design and, frankly, how many ways I could screw it up. I even began taking careful notes about needed supplies and plans for each piece of the truss tube scope. As the authors describe the benefits of a truss design, it is hard to dispute their arguments. As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. It had been described by many as the most important recent volume for anyone planning to build a dob, and I have to agree.
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. 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. 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 the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. Yet I was also becoming infected with aperture fever. A 10 inch scope would not be very much longer or heavier than my 6 inch, yet it would allow me to see much more. Many sources point out that 10 inches is a kind of sweet spot in the balance between power and portability. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. But by this time I had thought about building my own scope for several weeks, and getting one off the shelf seemed pretty boring by comparison! It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. I also wanted to buy the other mechanical parts-mirror cell, spider, secondary holder, and focuser-so that the performance of these pieces was not limited by my skills. But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. This might have been tempting if I wanted to build a 6 inch scope-at that size, they say that first-timers do pretty well at grinding and figuring their own optics. I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. This is the first telescope that I have built This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. 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.
#Big telescope drawing how to#
How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope.
0 kommentar(er)
