Building a Telescope Or Purchase

I've been eyeing up a 16" meade LX but wonder about building my own.
I'm not worried about how long it will take to build as its'a passion
of mine to have one eventually... (meaning in future!)

How feasable is it to build one near or of equal power to the larger
observatory style units?

Very seriously interested.
Thanks,

Daniel J

Daniel J Deyette wrote:
I've been eyeing up a 16" meade LX but wonder about building my own.
I'm not worried about how long it will take to build as its'a passion
of mine to have one eventually... (meaning in future!)

How feasable is it to build one near or of equal power to the larger
observatory style units?

Very seriously interested.
Thanks,

Daniel J

It is feasable and FUN. There is probably no pursuit that is as
rewarding to the amateur as building one's own telescope. For the price
of a 16" LX, you could generate a mighty fine one, at that.

I can say that with the exception of one large AP refractor (a 155) the
best views I have ever seen have been through amateur built telescopes,
frequently surpassing the views through university observatory scopes.

If you are considering a reflector, I would think of 16" as the lower
end for a telescope in that price range. 22" is a nice size. ;-)

I had a peek through Bruce Sayer's 22" binocular telescope at the
Whirlpool Galaxy. That was a special moment that I'll never forget.

Clear Skies,
Uncle Bob

I built a 20" DOB about 6 years ago as my first ever A) large project,
B) telescope project, C) wood working project. I suggest picking up
"The Dobsonian Telescope" Berry and Kriege and read it about a donzen
times.

I was lucky with my project, I was looking between a 20" and a 25" set
of optics, and the 20" optics set came into my hands first. After 6
years with this scope, I have come to the conclusion (for a varitey of
reasons) that a 20" scope is the largest scope a single person can
manipulate alone.

Budget about 10 times as many hours as your first plans call for.

Mitch

wrote in message roups.com...
I built a 20" DOB about 6 years ago as my first ever A) large project,
B) telescope project, C) wood working project. I suggest picking up
"The Dobsonian Telescope" Berry and Kriege and read it about a donzen
times.

I was lucky with my project, I was looking between a 20" and a 25" set
of optics, and the 20" optics set came into my hands first. After 6
years with this scope, I have come to the conclusion (for a varitey of
reasons) that a 20" scope is the largest scope a single person can
manipulate alone.

Budget about 10 times as many hours as your first plans call for.

Mitch

Thanks very much guys. This is definitely the way to go from what I'm
hearing.

Building my own observatory may take me 6 months or more.. but it'll
be worth it. I'd also like to mount my digital camera into the unit
and grab some photos eventually too.

Daniel J

Go searching about the web for telescope making and you will find that a
large telescope will be a fairly long project but it will be quite rewarding
in the end. You may end up with various frustrations from not knowing how
to do something in particular but the web will show several techniques for
doing any particular part of the scope.
Aftger you have built the scope, you will really enjoy the scope afterwords.
I'd suggest that you go to some of the larger star parties that are
advertised nationally and you will find many scopes of all sizes that the
people have built themselves and you will come away with a lot of knowledge
and a firm belief that you can indeed do your own scope without serious
problems.

--
Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:47:08 -0800, "Bob May"
wrote:

Go searching about the web for telescope making and you will find that a
large telescope will be a fairly long project but it will be quite rewarding
in the end. You may end up with various frustrations from not knowing how
to do something in particular but the web will show several techniques for
doing any particular part of the scope.
Aftger you have built the scope, you will really enjoy the scope afterwords.
I'd suggest that you go to some of the larger star parties that are
advertised nationally and you will find many scopes of all sizes that the
people have built themselves and you will come away with a lot of knowledge
and a firm belief that you can indeed do your own scope without serious
problems.
********

Believe me it is fun and a learning tool.

I bought the optics for a refractor and the focuser. The rest of the
OTA and lens support to the tube I did myself. I learned alot and I
get a lot of very interesting reactions at public observing seasons.

james

I would STRONGLY recommend going to several large star parties and take
a camera along.

You will see many homebuilt telescopes with ALOT of great ideas. I had
spent many hours looking for telescope making ideas on the web and in a
couple of hours at my first star party I saw more scopes than I had
seen on the web in days.

If anyone knows of sites that have ATM pictures and ideas, I for one as
well as others would love to hear about them.

Good luck with the ATM effort...you won't be disappointed.

Let us know how it turns out.

TMT