Telescope kits

I have just finished grinding, polishing, and figuring an 8" mirror of
approximately 54.5" focal length (an f/6.8). I don't have a lot of
experience with woodworking and would very much like to get this into a
telescope.

Do you know of any manufacturers who might be willing to provide pre-cut
parts for the base, rocker box, etc?

Thanks.

Clear Skies!

Tom Karpf

I have just finished grinding, polishing, and figuring an 8" mirror of
approximately 54.5" focal length (an f/6.8). I don't have a lot of
experience with woodworking and would very much like to get this into a
telescope.

Do you know of any manufacturers who might be willing to provide pre-cut
parts for the base, rocker box, etc?

Making the mirror is the hard part - the scope is easy. Get Berry's "Build
Your Own Telescope", or do a web search. Also, you will in all probability
find folks at your local astro club who can help you. Saying that you can
make a mirror but not a scope would, I am sure, give John Dobson more than a
few chuckles.

Dennis

In article ,
says...
I have just finished grinding, polishing, and figuring an 8" mirror of
approximately 54.5" focal length (an f/6.8). I don't have a lot of
experience with woodworking and would very much like to get this into a
telescope.

Do you know of any manufacturers who might be willing to provide pre-cut
parts for the base, rocker box, etc?

Thanks.

This is a bit of a stretch, but it might be worth asking Randy at
AstroSystems if a TeleKit can be made that small. The smallest I've seen
personally was a 12" f4, but who knows. If so, it would be a _top_notch_
kit.

www.astrosystems.biz

--

-- Len Philpot - --
------ ----- http://philpot.org/ --

Do you know of any manufacturers who might be willing to provide
pre-cut
parts for the base, rocker box, etc?

Hi Tom,

There are several places to get free plans for a dob scope. I am in no
way
a Norm Abrams, but I've built three scopes myself. I agree with the
others,
if you can grind your own mirror building a dob is nothing. There are
measured drawings as well as parts at MTG products. T scopes also has
all
the parts you need, ebony star. teflon, pivot kits, etc. T scopes also
has
dob kits. But, making your own doesn't require a great deal of tools,
and
much less expertise than grinding a mirror. A circular saw and basic
hammer,
square and measuring tools are about all you need. A good straight edge
for cutting nice square pieces, and a router does the best job cutting
circles.
Good luck,

Bob

wrote:
I have just finished grinding, polishing, and figuring an 8" mirror
of
approximately 54.5" focal length (an f/6.8). I don't have a lot of
experience with woodworking and would very much like to get this into
a
telescope.

Do you know of any manufacturers who might be willing to provide
pre-cut
parts for the base, rocker box, etc?

Thanks.

Clear Skies!

Tom Karpf

If you can handle assembling Ikea furniture you can make an 8" dob.
Its been a long time since I have built one but I found it easier to
make an ultra light truss dob than a sonotube dob. I'd start by
checking Mel Bartels' links and working from there
(http://www.efn.org/~mbartels/tm/ul-dobs.html). A jigsaw and a hand
drill ($20 new each) should be all you need

Ian Anderson
www.customopticalsystems.com

Dennis Woos wrote:
Making the mirror is the hard part - the scope is easy. Get Berry's "Build
Your Own Telescope", or do a web search. Also, you will in all probability
find folks at your local astro club who can help you. Saying that you can
make a mirror but not a scope would, I am sure, give John Dobson more than a
few chuckles.

Jane and I are both very much like the original poster. Grinding,
polishing, and figuring a mirror seem easier than building the mount.

For one thing, making the mirror requires very little in the way of
tools and space, compared to the mysteries of power tools, plywood and
sawdust.

We all have our gumption traps to work through.

I have the plywood pieces and tube for an 8-inch that have been in a
pile for the past couple of years. I missing the skills, tools,
experience, benchwork and moxie to finish it.

I dare say the telescope maker's workshop at Chabot suffers the same
problems -- lots of people finish mirrors, but not many of them get put
into telescopes. (At least that seemed to be the case a few years ago.)
All of the focus is on what the telescope makers consider to be the
hard part, and almost no effort is put into the really intimidating work
of building a simple mount.

Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org

wrote:
If you can handle assembling Ikea furniture you can make an 8" dob.

I guess that explains why my Ikea furniture is always falling apart.

Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org

Jane and I are both very much like the original poster. Grinding,
polishing, and figuring a mirror seem easier than building the mount.

For one thing, making the mirror requires very little in the way of
tools and space, compared to the mysteries of power tools, plywood and
sawdust.

We all have our gumption traps to work through.

I am glad you posted, reminding me and maybe others that what I find easy
may not be so for others, and that what I find hard others may find easy. I
can only recommend having a go at it, or even better working with somebody
who has some shop/woodworking experience, or best finding somebody who has
built some dobs to guide you.

Another point I would like to make is that using as models dobs that are
works of fine cabinetry and/or amazing but complicated engineering can be
dis-heartening for the beginner. A basic dob (as John Dobson likes them) is
extremely simple, and can look really nasty and still work well. Get out
and enjoy your ugly scope, and start planning on how your next one will be
alot better.

Dennis

wrote:
I have just finished grinding, polishing, and figuring an 8" mirror of
approximately 54.5" focal length (an f/6.8). I don't have a lot of
experience with woodworking and would very much like to get this into a
telescope.

Do you know of any manufacturers who might be willing to provide pre-cut
parts for the base, rocker box, etc?

Thanks.

Clear Skies!

Tom Karpf




We make Dob bases for exactly the case you are in. You can get a full
mount kit including mirror cell, spider, secondary, focuser, and base,
or you can just get the base if you want to do the OTA yourself and we
will size the mount parts to fit your tube. We also make upgrade mounts
for existing OTA's. Check us out at:

http://www.e2scopes.com

The other Eric and I started this business for a remarkably similar
situation. He wanted to build his own scope and had ideas on how to do
it, but no woodworking tools and no shop. I had the shop and all the
tools, but no astronomy experience. We figured others would be in the
same boat.

Thanks,
Eric Albrecht
e2 Telescope Design

We make Dob bases for exactly the case you are in. You can get a
full
mount kit including mirror cell, spider, secondary, focuser, and
base,
or you can just get the base if you want to do the OTA yourself and
we
will size the mount parts to fit your tube. We also make upgrade
mounts
for existing OTA's. Check us out at:

http://www.e2scopes.com

The other Eric and I started this business for a remarkably similar
situation. He wanted to build his own scope and had ideas on how to
do
it, but no woodworking tools and no shop. I had the shop and all the

tools, but no astronomy experience. We figured others would be in
the
same boat.

Thanks,
Eric Albrecht
e2 Telescope Design


who makes the optics on the complete kits?