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Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

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11–20 of 34 posts

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#11

Very cool project and video documentation, really inspiring! As someone who is mechanically inclined and has a decent amount of tools/3D printer, is there any DIY telescope that you would recommend to build as a first foray into the field? I've never done much with optics, and after reading through a few of your posts, it looks both incredibly challenging and very rewarding.

How into this will you get? If you just want to make your own a small telescope is easiest (see the other reply). As things get large expenses go up. Commercial lens are cheap for smaller telescopes, but as you get to large that becomes the cost and so making your own is the only way you can afford it. If you want a large telescope you should again start making a small one, but this time making your own lens - even though it isn't cost effective to make your own lens (vs buy), the experience means you have a chance to make a larger one (and finish, most people who set out to make one large telescope never finish, those set out to make a small and then a large are more likely to finish both).

If you just want to see the stars, goodwill often has telescopes cheap. A refactor can see more than your eye. (or even the binoculars you likely already have!). And the bigger reflectors are seen once in a while.

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#13
post #9

Love this. Thanks for sharing. My friend and I pulled an old Dobsonian telescope of my Dad's from the garage when we were teenagers. We spent hours and hours out with it under the stars, and on cloudy nights I would read a book about telescope construction. Back then, cabinet makers were building the most impressive wood frames. Interesting to see how the technology has changed.

> cabinet makers were building the most impressive wood frames You say impressive, but my mind reads that as heavy even if they looked amazing

Yeah! I meant impressive more in the “big sturdy woodwork” sense, not lightweight. They had to hold a heavy mirror and still move smoothly enough to aim by hand. The Dobsonian design, plus Teflon on Formica bearings, made big aperture amateur telescopes way more accessible to hobbyists. From what I gathered it was definitely a “bigger is better” kind of thing, and weight seemed pretty secondary.

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#15

Very cool project and video documentation, really inspiring! As someone who is mechanically inclined and has a decent amount of tools/3D printer, is there any DIY telescope that you would recommend to build as a first foray into the field? I've never done much with optics, and after reading through a few of your posts, it looks both incredibly challenging and very rewarding.

I built a Hadley 114 over the course of 3 weekends and I highly enjoyed it. Amazon has a convenient 2 piece mirror kit you can buy. The rest of the parts (springs, screws, rods) can be acquired anywhere and the stand can be as complex or as simple as you want.

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#16
post #5

Quite an impressive build. How hard is it to collimate the telescope? Does it hold the collimation?

Hi ! It is quite easy, with 2 tilt screws at the secondary cage, and the primary cell floats on three heavy duty springs. I can shake it and nothing moves, this is my first criteria. I collimate with a cheshire tool but always finish on a star at medium power (since this telescope realistically does not reach high power, since it would need 2mm eyepieces which are the opposite of wide field views). I use it with Expl…

Barlow!?

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#17

Very cool project and video documentation, really inspiring! As someone who is mechanically inclined and has a decent amount of tools/3D printer, is there any DIY telescope that you would recommend to build as a first foray into the field? I've never done much with optics, and after reading through a few of your posts, it looks both incredibly challenging and very rewarding.

Just go down the rabbit hole like I have over the past year...

Find thick glass on Facebook, build a cutting jig, build a kiln to fuse it, etc. I'm still planning to build an 18".

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#18
post #12

How does one get started in the telescope building hobby?

You might be lucky enough that a local museum regularly hosts a telescope making workshop. In the SF Bay Area you can go to the Chabot Space & Science Center on Fridays 7-10pm.

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#19
post #12

How does one get started in the telescope building hobby?

https://stellafane.org/tm/index.html has good guides. There are astronomy forums such as CloudyNights with their own ATM sections. Edmind Optics has All About Telescopes by Sam Brown available online - https://www.edmundoptics.com/ViewDocument/All%20About%20Tele...

There are so many books around this and many great website such as this one for example: https://www.bbastrodesigns.com/tm.html

Re: Wallace the 6 inch f/2.8 telescope, building it, and hiking with it

#20
post #12

How does one get started in the telescope building hobby?

I wanted to know as well! The resources I found, though, don't mention anything about what is the safety precautions one should take about the dust generated in the process. What masks to use and such. I understand everything should be done wet, but I wanted to know, for example, if one should wear a mask when polishing with cerium oxide even when wet. Maybe I'm being too cautions of this? I do fear what I don't understand! It's hard to make decisions without numbers. If anyone has any info on this please let me know! :)
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