homemade telescope focuser homemade telescope focuser

Now I can simply insert the PVC cap on the end of a 4" pvc tube. Rather than use a sheet of plastic Kydex to finish the tube, as recommended in K/B, I ordered a sheet of birch veneer. 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. and hope it doesn't fall off Not sure if it is available in the USA. After you've done that, put a couple of tiny pan-head screws Before finishing the tube with a wrap of veneer, I wanted to make sure that the primary was in the correct position. After a few weeks of no communication from them, no ability to phone or email them, and no mirror cell arriving. See captioned photos 22-25 here:https://www.cloudyniractor-focuser/ for more detail on building a flush valve focuser, as Bob mentions. the side of a rigid secondary cage. Share it with us! We use cookies to continuously improve our websites for you and optimize its design and customization. I tried to call, but the voice mail had a recording stating that the customer was unable to receive messages. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. The overall project is super cheap, we're building this thing for something like $50 in materials. it sticks into your light path. telescope page, I wasn't really eager to buy two commercial Crayford The secondary holder is adjustable, so I could didn't have to get the location perfect. I installed the spider first, about one inch down from the end of the square end of the tube. It may need some careful coaxing with a screwdriver. With the DRV8825 and Arduino Nano plugged in, the basic board is complete. 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. 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. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. I have no dog in this hunt whatsoever, but if people are impressed by these photographs and vote for it because of them when there's no proof that this scope generated the photos and there IS data to the contrary (see below), then that's certainly not fair to the other contestants. It was May 12th. As I set of the scope, several club members came over to check things out and it was nice to hear the positive comments on the appearance of the scope. I drilled the holes in the center of the ground board and rocker bottom using a 9/16 bit, thinking that I needed the extra 1/16 so that the spacer could move. The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. Total cost for supplies for this project: It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. You should watch (and bookmark) this video. I want to put my 12.5 mirror in a collapsible structure so I can haul it easy, Say a truss tube design, 7 years ago 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. 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. While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. A neet site: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/CAMERAS.HTM Cool instructable, Dude! I hate focusing. #2 knitting needle would be just about right. I then temporarily installed the secondary mirror so that I could measure the approximate distance to the center of the secondary in order to locate the holes for the focuser. I started by trying to drill out a metal gear for the focuser shaft. The drawings are only approximately to scale. I really had to, since the underside of my telescope's focuser is all curves, no flat area for attaching the mounting bracket. 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. This cost around $100 to build and all of the components came from. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. Thicker walls also required thicker side bearings so that the outside of the bearings would line up with the outside of the rocker sides. Both cameras have fairly small megapixels by todays' standards, and are certainly obsolete, but do the job extremely well! 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. 7 years ago Community Forum Software by IP.BoardLicensed to: Cloudy Nights. They suggested a construction supply place on the other side of the city that I had not called yet. Someone is pulling someone's leg here. Before I wrapped the tube (and before I discovered the problem with the primary placement) I determined the balance point on the tube. Today I purchased what is called atank nipple in India. Maker-written books designed to inform and delight! I decided to use baltic birch because it is recommended by Kriege and Berry as well as many online sources. the nylon screws going up from the bottom, but I found the knitting The Artemis module works extremely well, and is to be strongly recommended. Reply I didn't receive any confirmation email after a few days, so I tried to send them an email. They have many items for ATMers and I had frequently visited their website when planning my scope. 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. If you look in the FILES area on Robert Brown's site (see link above) you will see a sub-folder "3D Printed Parts". Your design is simple and nice. 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. On the bottom of the Bottom board is a ring of Ebony Star laminate that glides over the three teflon pads located directly above the feet on the ground board. I plan to use an FTA over it in case an extension is needed. Share it with us! work really well, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial Crayford I wanted a tight / press fit, so I only added half that, 0.25mm. I attached them with very small brads, countersinking the brads. Pierre Lemay, thanks for sharing your simple and incredible design. on Introduction. This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). I have not yet figured out a better way to hold the tube. narrow the frame. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion focusers, normally found in this type of device. The specific hardware used for this is described on the Building page. At this point, the scope was pretty much finished. In the "ARDUINO FIRMWARE" folder, in it you will find a ZIP file "myFP2-Firmware 312-1.zip". I was concerned that it would be difficult to find, but I was able to order it from a local woodworking shop. Thanks for your article. Or in my case, back to SolidWorks :-). There was the expense, for one, but also the When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. When they arrived, they were beautifully and carefully packaged with the secondary already installed in its holder. The mirror cell: University Optics (eventually). This makes for better sky photographs as the exposure time can be lengthened,. on Introduction. 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.". I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). Edited by sunrag, 28 May 2020 - 10:44 PM. think that design would be rigid enough under the weight of a diagonal 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. 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. Drawing lines between opposite corners of the tube box sides allowed me to locate the center point on each side. Un-real!!! I also have an extended photographic build diary of this telescope posted on Imgur. Plus it comes in black, so you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). 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. My homemade motorized telescope focuser for Celestron C8. I had installed the mirror about an inch too far away from the focuser. 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. How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope. 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! Obviously an open truss telescope. Nice one. 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. off the bearings. Make sure the shroud can slip on and off of the assembled scope, and that it stretches along the circumference (not lengthwise). Start with the small components first. Finally, I glued a strip of Ebony Star laminante to the curves edge of each side bearing using contact cement, using a flush edge bit on a router to bring the edge of the laminate even with the edge of the wood after the cement had set. 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. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. I particularly like that the design can be integrated directly into the focuser board to make a very, very simple UTA. Let me see if I am able to collect all the parts needed. During on-site assembly, attach each truss to its mounting T-nut using a bolt with a thumbscrew knob. As I understand, you are using it for a refractor. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). Thicker knitting needles would be even Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. guarantee a response, but I'll do my best to answer everyone who writes 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. 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. With adapters for any Meade 1x200-ACF or LS model, and chord to plug into focuser port. Install on Windows 10, this part is pretty straightforward. 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. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. I pointed it at distant trees and had no problem bringing the image into focus with all of my eyepieces. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). So I decided to make my own, using my normal "blunder in naively and see what happens" approach to making things. Bill, Impressive work and great idea about LSDF focuser. 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. installations. 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 company has a reputation for excellent optics, and it was neither the most expensive, nor the least. A week after they said they would send the secondary and other parts, I called to ask if things had been sent. One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. 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. pageTracker._trackPageview(); 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. You need to order it sized for your focuser shaft size. It wouldn't be a two-speed design, but if I used a thin enough While a sling or whiffletree provide the best edge support, a two-point edge support is much easier to construct. 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. That's pretty much the focuser. Perfect for astrophotography or during high power planetary observation. The 2-1.25" adapter is a sink drain slip fitting in 1-1/4" size that slips into the large tube for 1.25 EP's. An electronic focuser, which moves the focus knob through a combination of hardware and software, solves this problem. occurred to me that a square turned 45 degrees would give me two flat The bigger upvc nut will be attached to focuser plate and longer threaded side will be used on it for the focusing. 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! 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. I did run into a small problem with the focuser. 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. I sourced my own Stepper motor and 1:150 reduction gearbox from RS, who are just up the road. I would love to see your build when you are finished with it . To hold the tube in place within the tube box, I used a combination of pieces of felt inside the box and wooden shims between the tube and the box. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. 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. 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. 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. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. 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. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. A wide hole will let the knitting needle creep Contact cement is permanent, so the only solution would be to replace the tube! Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. 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. focuser. I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. SDO/HMI Continuum Image on 2023.03.04 at 1259 UT, Remote computer working with no extra networking. Given that you can make the drawtube any length you Meade Zero Image-Shift Electronic Micro-Focuser This high precision focuser allows you to obtain an extremely accurate image focus. 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. Participated in the Celestron Space Challenge. } 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. This motor has a 5mm drive shaft. 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. Not sure how your toilets are built over there, but here they use what is called a tank flush valve. the tube is cardboard as well, you can also get a quality mirror at telescope.com for much cheaper. Download the Gerber Files. homemade Crayford focuser. I had already made a lightweight focuser for I then attached the Ebony Star ring using contact cement. drneilmb, thanks for sharing the focuser design. You can view and download the full file here. The shroud made from two 22 inch tall containers came out short, so I had to add an eleven inch strip of nylon. 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. 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. A project collaboration and documentation platform. Above youll find an interactive 3D rendering of the Sketchup file I used to design and cut all of the parts for my telescope. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. I set things up in daylight and collimated the scope. I drilled holes for the screws that avoided the location of the ring, and attached the rocker bottom. To get a slide-fit in a 3D printed part, you normally make the hole 0.5mm larger than the shaft. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. To view, go here: http://emediadesigns.com/focuser/ Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. I used my router to "mill" a flat area for better contact with the focus adjustment rod. I had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. 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. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. Drill a hole and attach the ball head using a shorter 1/4" 20 bolt. Connect the Arduino USB cable and upload some test sketches. Focuser minimum height is 50 mm and maximum a little over 90 mm so it is good overall. Given any mirror measurements, PLOP will provide the ideal support layout and how much distortion to expect for any number of flotation points. 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. exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube Download and check them out, I just grabbed the first one and printed it. 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. Also no obvious diffraction spikes in the m31 photo. Next step, before my first acquisition of any parts, is to get with any amateur astronomers in Central Florida, so, wish me luck! 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. 1N5408 3A Diode (you may need to make the pins smaller to fit through the holes in the board. I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. 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. We are now ready for some testing. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a 4 years ago small, it's surprisingly rigid. 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. The next day, I called back to ask their opinion about the kind of spider and secondary holder to order. - Bill. To make the hole for the focuser, I used the focuser tube to mark a circle in the shroud. the interior diameter is just a nudge over 2". This motor has a larger shaft diameter (8mm) and is quite a bit heavier overall than the direct drive motor, mainly because of the gearbox. 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. Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. once. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. These are mounted 120 degrees apart and use 4 inexpensive bearings to support the tube. Fast forward a few months to the next time I had the tube outside. 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. If you're going for simple, have you considered a helical focuser? scope, I only put knobs on the outsides. 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. Another thing, the resolution on the Dumbell nebula seems a bit too high for that telescope. 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. A The project creator Robert Brown made a good video on testing the board. Similar photos at http://www.telescopegeek.com/gallery.htm require 100+ minute exposure times on his 20" telescope and $3200 camera. Trim off any unused fabric along the base. Interfaced with a computer, so the computer can make the decisions about where the best focus is. on Introduction. 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. love to hear from people who are interested in this focuser design. I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. After the second call, I received a response that it would be ready at the end of the following week. This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. When you want to focus, you just open the program and press focus. Finally, I attached Keepers to the sides of the rocker at the bottom of the arcs using screws and glue. It took yet another call a week later for the items to actually be mailed. Deep space photos like these require HOURS of exposure for each one.