pageTracker._trackPageview(); This will determine the size of the coupler you will use to connect the stepper motor. The plate has slotted screw holes for tensioning the 6mm belt. This is the upper tube that contains the flat secondary mirror, Telrad finder, and focuser. Depending on your telescope, one of the Brackets that Robert has may work for you. I have no idea how much mail this idea will generate, so I can't Concluding that I would not be able to buy a tube off the shelf, I found a couple of companies that took special orders on cardboard tubes. They're fairly document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); on Step 5. And bolt to scope This software creates a model of your telescope by measuring out of focus star sizes at various points. 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. Share it with us! spambots that search the internet for addresses to send junk mail to.) It took a lot longer than I expected to receive my mirror and other parts from Discovery. I carefully cut exactly through the center of each side bearing circle to make my semicircles. Crayford-style design with four bearings and one driveshaft. I called in the order and explained that I would be using a mirror two inches thick. The current needs to be adjusted on the DRV8825. 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. Pierre Lemay, thanks for sharing your simple and incredible design. Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube A smart collection of books, magazines, electronics kits, robots, microcontrollers, tools, supplies, and more 5 weeks after I had ordered the mirror, I called to ask about its status. So, am curious to see what others have designed and built and proud to show off here on the homage to Crayford thread. crafts, science & engineering, design, and technology. 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. We all know the problems with focusing. Find a special something for the makers in your life. When I ordered the cell, I paid through paypal, which immediately deducts money from my checking account. 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. I paid the 50% deposit and dreamed of DSOs. I will have a lot of fun building my homemade 12.5 inch Dobsonian Telescope!!! widening the hole. 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 had to take apart the focuser in order to get my bolts in place. While I will freely admit that most astro-photography is WAY beyond me, you certainly do NOT need a $3200 camera to do so. Since my plan called for purchasing the mirrors and mechanical parts there were several decisions to be made and several vendors to contact. I am working on a diy focuser design for my 6" F/8 telescope and asking suggestions for simple focuser. guarantee a response, but I'll do my best to answer everyone who writes Robert Brown did an excellent video on how to work out your stepper motor requirements. 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. I marked the spot and moved things back inside to install the mirror. Low, or Zero slop when changing direction. After cutting the circles for the side bearings, I set up the jig to cut the curved edges of the rocker sides. 1/4" x 20 bolt, and the nylon bolt end against the smooth knitting 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 applied contact cement to the first inch of the veneer and the mating inch of the tube. Attach the ball head to the top board. I tried to call, but the voice mail had a recording stating that the customer was unable to receive messages. Their step by step instructions were invaluable to me as I built this scope. Whether you need a basic rack-and-pinion telescope focuser for your homemade telescope project or a premium Crayford-type model with dual-speed focusing as a performance upgrade, you have come to the right place. help eliminate slippage when the focuser is pointed straight upward. ASIAIR - Is there an easy way to load Messier catalog into Autorun? 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. 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. Two such companies would not give me a price because the order of a single tube was too small. I brought a saw with me so that I cut it in half to fit in my minivan. 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. I ended up modifying it a bit after printing. It interfaces to the computer via USB and comes with an ASCOM driver. Over how many nights did this photography session take place? 11 years ago With an outer diameter of 14 3/16, I cut the Tube Box sides 15 5/8 and 14 5/8slightly less than my extra inch extra on each side. To interface with the computer, I have used the Artemis Focuser module from Steve, Arthur and Co. I wasn't there so i can be 100% but i do not think my friend was lying to me and i believe the pictures are from my telescope my kids use it for stargazing a lot i have seen some deepspace but i use it mainly for sketching the moon and i like to view solar flares. 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. Helical is one of the option i am considering. But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. The rocker sides are each made of two identical pieces of inch plywood glued together, creating two sides one inch thick. I waited until dark and pointed the scope at the sky. This allows for a small clearance between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tube box (14 3/8). I only do functional. PhotoPictureResizer_190723_214534574_crop_2558x3105_copy_1023x1242.jpg. Your astrophotographer friend may have included his own images from his setup. One of the companies I had considered as a supplier for the primary mirror was Anttler's Optical. The 48 inch width of the veneer was close enough to the diameter of the tube that I used it as is. Easy DIY motorized battery free telescope focuser - YouTube corners of the squares provide nice nooks for the eyepiece and eyepiece The telescopes size is classified by the size of its mirror. Motion is very smooth. So, for my telescope I used a 6mm to 5mm coupler available on Amazon. It has become an indispensable piece of equipment for me that so beats hacking and filing PVC pipes etc. When they arrived, they were beautifully and carefully packaged with the secondary already installed in its holder. I decided to keep this tube for now and if I run into problems with it, I can replace it later. "https://ssl." The basic points I wanted to cover: What did I end up with? This combination has proved to be effective for all positions except when the tube is pointed directly up. Orion Dynamo Mini for powering a Nexstar 6SE? A Pocket Sundial From a Broken Pocket Watch! The little app is simple and works great. (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.) My newtonian telescope, like most others, came fitted with a nasty rack and pinion focuser. I have built a homemade electric focuser for my Celestron 8SE using a radio control hobby servo and some spare parts. I'd be willing to bet that you could easily grind your own 12.5 inch next time and save some $$. 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. homemade Crayford focuser. 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. Feel free to take on that part if you like, but you're on your own :-). . Edited by Pierre Lemay, 25 May 2020 - 08:10 AM. Telescope Focusers | Orion Telescopes: Shop It may take you a while to adjust the image correctly, but it's not hard to do, just time consuming. NEMA-17 Stepper Motor - see below, there are two options. Our websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience. The glue should keep the nylon from fraying. This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. 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. Thanks again for the 'ible. I'll use an aluminum tube for the finished draw tube but for now the plastic tube . you don't need to paint it (or worry about paint flaking off it). 4 years ago More Homemade Refractor Telescope DIY Erecting Prism Binoviewer Focuser here: Did you make this project? At some point in the building process, my goal became to finish the scope by RocheStar Fest, an annual event of the Rochester Astronomy Club. This sure is going to be a project I will work on. 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. The focuser is very smooth. The blue pieces of the rocker box and ground board are arranged as in the diagrams in (figure 2). 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. Focusers of telescopes. Types, difference, specifications - Star Hunter