homemade telescope focuser

DIY Truss Dob input: How to design truss? Able to shift heavy loads of kit ie over 1000g. The motor is much lighter than the geared motor. I'm only hoping to supplement it a bit with some info and pictures aimed at those with limited skills (such as myself) :-) I'm not an electrical engineer, I'm more of a software guy with some limited knowledge of electronics and basic soldering and assembly skills. I like the old way of using stepper motors and other stuff introduced years ago by Mel Bartels, he is a master for me. (actually, it ended up a smidge more than 2 inches) Lighter than the existing focuser. It is used to setup water outlet from overhead water tanks. You should watch (and bookmark) this video. In the sub-folder "Cases" you will see many variants of the case for the DRV8825 based focusers. The belt and pulleys are off-the-shelf items available on Amazon. Well, it sort of looks like a focuser.. See pictures below. Not worth the effort, price is tooo high. 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. 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. 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. To do this, the mirror cell needs to be supported by 3 large bolts, at least 2 of which are adjustable. At this point, the scope was pretty much finished. The focuser knob had two set screws. Coupler for NEMA-17 Stepper Motor (also two choices, see below), LM7808 Voltage Regulator with TO-220 package -, Mini On/Off 3-pin 2-position slide switch -, Headers and wire (miscellaneous sizes and gauges), these are important so you can replace the component if it is damaged, LM7808 voltage regulator w/TO-220 heat sink package, 2-pin headers for 12V power and on/off switch. Share a cool tool or product with the community. It's easy to shim it to exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube until a 2" eyepiece or 1.25" adapter is snug. 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. I sanded all parts of the telescope with 220 grit sandpaper followed by 400 grit, making a very smooth surface to apply the stain. flexing. 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. I used one of the top scraps from the rocker sides to mark an angle of 70 degrees from the center of the arc to the curved cut in order to properly space 1 X 7/8 teflon pads on the arcs. The curved sides of the Side Bearings are also covered with strips of Ebony Star that glide on the teflon pads on the curved edges of the Rocker Sides (figure 3). I ground and figured the mirror with little troubles, making my focault tester, etc. Two different construction supply companies told me that sonotubes were not available with a 14 inch diameter, even by special order. The silly colours are mainly due to me experimenting with various clothes dyes in the anodising. My plan for wrapping the tube seemed good, but I am not too pleased with the final result. If not, you may need to design and print your own bracket(s), gears, and so on. They're fairly I plan to use an FTA over it in case an extension is needed. The drawings are only approximately to scale. So, am curious to see what others have designed and built and proud to show off here on the homage to Crayford thread. 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 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. Fairly easy to build and could be adapted to suit any SCT focuser. 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. 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. It took about 3 weeks but, since Anttler's did not even reply to the Paypal dispute, I received a Paypal refund. The mirror box encloses the mirror cell and allows the entire telescope to rotate vertically. Now attach the screw eyes and the rubber band on the side of the board. This extra space would allow the tube to be repositioned within the tube box to rotate the eyepiece or balance the tube. 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. You currently have javascript disabled. Keeping with the 'simple ' part of your request, here is a helical 2"/1.25" focuser made from std plumbing parts. 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 Paper Scissors Using Tinkercad Circuits and Arduino, Punchy the MECH & the Autonomous Fight Club, Soft-sensor-saurus | an E-textile Soft Sensor Soft Toy With LED Light. Since my focuser shaft is 6mm, I ordered the coupler shown here in the 6mm to 8mm version from Amazon. New Creation Tamil 6.96K subscribers Welcome to New Creation Tamil Our Channel include of Guiding Videos: 1.DIY Projects 2.Awesome Ideas 3.Tips You are inter with New Creation Tamil you can enjoy. like, you can have as much focuser travel as you want no matter how With adapters for any Meade 1x200-ACF or LS model, and chord to plug into focuser port. on Step 3. Obviously an open truss telescope. So, I duplicated the aluminum gear pulley in SolidWorks, and printed it out. Sh2-169 and Sh2-168, IC5146 Cocoon Nebula, Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125. Just to make sure I liked the stain, I applied some to a piece of scrap wood. A free program that lights childrens creative fires and allows them to explore projects in areas such as arts & The secondary holder is adjustable, so I could didn't have to get the location perfect. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. Those are the last screws to be tightened. 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. I don't have the skills to build a focuser using a. The part is very strong! It turned out that they had an incorrect zip code and the package was still waiting to be sent. The back of the mirror floats on 3 or more support points (this build uses 6) that are calculated usinga software tool called PLOP. I will get good 30-40 mm focusing range. 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. Please explain, in detail, how you attached your tube to the very unique drive system of an XT12G mount. Helical is one of the option i am considering. my 12.5" trackball, but I didn't really stiff and light for their size, and even though a #2 is pretty on my binocular scope for quite a while now and really like them. A wide hole will let the knitting needle creep 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. I wanted the long focal length for good contrast. 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. on Introduction. how much travel you actually need, you can cut the tube off so none of on Step 1, interesting build, its just like my old Odyssey brand scope from the mid 1990's. Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project - focusing is now a joy. During assembly, youll attach the trusses to the mirror box, then sit the secondary cage on top and bolt everything in place. The base and the rocker box in my telescope are secured with a skate bearing assembly but could be more simply attached with a bolt through the center. Install on Windows 10, this part is pretty straightforward. small, it's surprisingly rigid. So, for my telescope I used a 6mm to 5mm coupler available on Amazon. Funny how the bigger they are the better for dobs. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? That way you won't be dropping your drawtube and Sew the seam, and sew an elastic cord into the top to secure it to the secondary cage. This simple homemade device will reduce star trails far better than if the camera was mounted on a tripod alone. Along with some silver bits It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. Thanks Pinbout for sharing your design. Download and check them out, I just grabbed the first one and printed it. I built mine entirely from CNC-cut plywood, and fastened it together with 2 bolts. A bit of a monster! This design could be adapted to practically any telescope or focuser, so I've kept my outline on the project brief. An Altitude Azimuth mount would also require a field rotator.There's no way these were taken with an Orion GoTo Mount. 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. This is not recommended for shared computers. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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. These have slop as you change direction, you can't do fine adjustments, they weigh a ton, and can flex alarmingly over time. In amateur astrophotography, we run our telescopes overnight. The extra force will also The little app is simple and works great. We were careful to press out any bubbles as we went, but when the job was done we found that there were multiple bubbles in the veneer. I had some carboy caps that make good knobs. Make an account on JLCPCB.com, upload the Gerber zip file, that's it! 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.". Plan ahead by carefully weighing all components and approximating the center mass of the optical assembly. Your design is simple and nice. 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. I installed the spider first, about one inch down from the end of the square end of the tube. Step 3The Side Bearings and Rocker Sides. The wide square footprint would make it pretty stable when mounted to 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. 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. experimented with various wires and rods and eventually decided that a I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6" F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. This is the mirror box for my 16", with Jim doing a bit of cleanup sanding. Your choice here will be recorded for all Make.co Websites. 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 really had to, since the underside of my telescope's focuser is all curves, no flat area for attaching the mounting bracket. It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. 1N5408 3A Diode (you may need to make the pins smaller to fit through the holes in the board. Next, attach the eyepiece and the focuser to the top part of the telescope tube. You really need a step ladder even for my 10" when pointed overhead. needle adds no friction that I can feel to the focus action. 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. Primary telescope mirror aftermarket, homemade, or custom-made. I had designed the tube box so that there would be an extra inch around the tube. DIY Craford Focuser. Like i said these are not my photos and i cannot coment on exactly how he set it up as i was not there all i can say is i saw the mount he used when he picked up the telescope. 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 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 diameter of the focuser is usually indicated in inches. The premier publication of maker projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews, and inspirational stories, exactly 2" with adhesive labels placed one at a time inside the tube Measure twice, drill Pierre's Helical Crayford gets my vote hands-down for elegant simplicity. 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. microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. a try. This NEMA-17 direct drive stepper motor is available from Adafruit and many other sellers. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. The focal length of the mirror is 61 inches. 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. My other telescope is a Celestron NexStar C6E. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. Home centers and hardware stores did not carry large sizes. But let me see what items I can arrange to make a helical. A neet site: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/CAMERAS.HTM Cool instructable, Dude! Meade Zero Image-Shift Electronic Micro-Focuser This high precision focuser allows you to obtain an extremely accurate image focus. This resulted in a gear that wasn't true and "wobbled" a bit. See the images how I plan to assemble it. I have one on my 12" f/5 truss dob and the focuser knob is on the top surface of the UTA. on Introduction. Crayford focusers are considered superior to entry-level rack and pinion 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. Edited by Pierre Lemay, 25 May 2020 - 08:10 AM. The spider, or secondary mirror holder, will suspend the mirror in the optical path in order to direct light into the focuser. The telescopes size is classified by the size of its mirror. 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 by cranking This sure is going to be a project I will work on. The project creator Robert Brown made a good video on testing the board. I was certain not to move the jig at all before cutting the second circle. So I was looking for a cheap, light-but-sturdy design for a Able to make myself using my own humble tools (or toys as the pros will call them!). can't click on it or copy and paste it; it's a graphic file to thwart And bolt to scope One 6in dob I made was a complete failure. Once your telescope is assembled, drape black woven velveteen around the truss assembly, clipping it with safety pins. All that remained was to design and print a bracket, and buy the needed parts. This motor is available on Amazon. Attach the ball head to the top board. once. Showcasing amazing maker projects of 2022. This proved fatal for the stepper motor! The focuser shaft on the telescope is 13.1mm in diameter. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning I wanted to finish that instructable before the contest ended but was too late :-). As I read the book I decided that I should build a 12.5 inch truss tube scope. My telescope is the Orion ED80T-CF. I have already seen some designs on CN, Stellafane and web but still checking if someone has recently made anything simpler. 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. Nice one. For the ATMer I do find that there are an endless number of parts that can be designed and printed for home built telescopes and binoscopes. Another vote for Pierre's helical Crayford design. An electronic focuser, which moves the focus knob through a combination of hardware and software, solves this problem. on Introduction, Very nice build nikon20. 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. 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. 1" Rack & Pinion Focuser. 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. If you wanted to really go low-profile with this design, I then ran a bead of glue on the mark, and after it dried I cut out the nylon up to the glue. 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! You will look through these as you rotate the wheel. focuser. I had talked with their owner about mirrors and mirror cells once, and I was very impressed by his knowledge of telescope building. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. Since these focusers were going side-by-side on a binocular a 3/4" thickness. Finally, attach your polar alignment device and align it with the hinge. Edited by howardcano, 24 May 2020 - 09:29 PM. #@$%^#@!!!!! The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. The dimensions of the Tube Box Sides are based on the outer diameter of my tube14 3/16. 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. large in diameter (1.6") so that adds to the fine-ness of the focus try { 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. haven't yet found any design elements that need improvement. Here's a detailed response from a thread at CloudyNights:http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=4721255 "The image scale is wrong on the M31 image, fits too much of the galaxy in for even a 35mm chip. Step 4Attaching the Side Bearings and assembling the Rocker. needle so the knitting needle will be snug against the drawtube without Plus it comes in black, so I have no idea how much mail this idea will generate, so I can't I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! 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. I had already made a lightweight focuser for Pretty dry but important! it sticks into your light path. I have several of the books on building a Dobsonian Telescope. You should now be able to drill the 4 holes at each corner. More commercial crayford focusers are of a more enclosed form, whereas mine is more "open frame" approach. Thank you for your pages. I used the "LEDandBuzzer" and "TestStepsDRV8825" tests. Brandon Lawler is a hobbyist telescope Maker and an active member of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. There was the expense, for one, but also the 8 years ago The cost is a bit more than some of the other combinations, but by only $10 or $20. After the glue dried but before the clamps were removed, I added corner braces to all four corners of the tube using glue and brads to hold them in place. on Step 5, 9 years ago I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. 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 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.

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