Mirror in hand

I have my 114mm F8 Mirror. I should be able to start building the scope around it in the next few days. I'm going to find a few feet of sonotube after work. Then to get started working on putting the thing together next week.

Cost of Plywood

A co worker has just informed me that a 4'x 8' sheet of plywood costs about 100NIS. If cut carefully this should be enough for 3 telescopes. Now to find out about PVC for the focuser.

Telescope Components

Ok in addition to the optics, to build a scope we will need the following sections

• Scope Tube (Sonotube)
• Spider and Secondary Holder (wood and metal for the spider)
• Mirror Cell (Plywood, some bolts and something to allow them to be adjusted)
• ground board (Plywood, with furniture feet)
  
• Mount (More Plywood)
• azimuth bearing (wood or PVC)
• Focuser (PVC)

Tools needed:

• Circular saw
• Router
  
• Drill
• Jigsaw
• Some jigs for various things
  

Other things needed

• epoxy
• bolts
• Nuts
  
• 1" Dowel For secondary holder
• metal strapping
• Cork shims
  
• teflon

Telescope factory, copied from my LJ

OK I have had this idea for a while but the strong shekel and the fact that I have found some decent sources for optics in the USA makes this seem like a good time to put the idea out to those in Israel, would anyone be interested in finding some time this summer to build telescopes.

In terms of cost this is what we are looking at

• Primary Mirror $33 (4.5" F8, good for a small starter scope), secondary included
  
• Plossl Eyepiece $25 each, I would suggest at least a 25mm, but it may be worth getting a few
  

Here is the thing, if you just order the primary mirror shipping will be about $23 to Israel, however according to their shopping cart if we order 3 mirror sets and 3 eyepieces then shipping only goes up to about $40. The upshot is that if we want to build 3 scopes then the cost would be about $70 each for the optics. We would have to fabricate a bunch of stuff locally (Mirror cells, Spider, Focuser, scope tube & dobsonain mount) but none of that is impossible. Best guess would be about 300NIS for optics, and at most 200 NIS more for everything else. Maybe less.

I'm still working out ideas for finderscopes

If anyone is interested please let me know. Power tools would be a plus! Routers and circular saws seem to be the things we would need the most.

I would be happy to also show people how to find star charts on the web.

Feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested.


In terms of what can be seen with a 4.5" Scope

• The Moon, in great Detail
• Jupiter, including the 4 major moons and some surface detail
• Saturn, Rings and Major moons
• Most of the 109 Messier Objects, some may require a dark sky
• A large number of double stars, variable stars etc
• Sunspots and the like ONLY VIEW THE SUN WITH A PROPER SOLAR FILTER, Such as Baadar solar film!

Some details on Jupiter and Saturn will be better with a higher magnification eyepiece such as a 8mm Plosssl, about another $25.

Tools needed

So I figure to build these scopes I will need these power tools:

• Plunge Router (with some bits and jigs)
• Miter saw. Specifically I will need to make an angle of 32° (as I live 32° north)
• Hand drill
• Jig saw

(Tools I have)

Non power tools that I may need:

• Goggles (for eye protection)
• Sandpaper
• Clamps (a bunch)
• hammer, screwdrivers etc
• Tape Measure
  

All of this will also put me in a good position to build a bunch of bookshelves.

As for router bits, I think a Dado bit and something to let me cut circles, the dado may work there, a small quarter round might be helpful too.

I'm going to see if my jigsaw can cut on an angle with a jig. Cutting at 30° should be good enough. Or I can see if a neighbor has a miter saw that can do 32°

In need of tools

I found a few episodes of "The New Yankee Workshop", and have been watching them to learn something about woodworking. Last night I saw the router 101 episodes (as well as the lathe episode). It looks like plunge router and a few jigs will get me a long way to where I want to go.

To build various scope parts I will need a circle jig, which he showed how to make, and it looks quite doable.

Finding optics

I have found these 3 companies that sell telescope mirrors on the low end.

• Anttlers Optics
• Hands On Optics
  
• Meridian Telescopes

Meridian has a 4.25" F8 mirror for about $32, which would be about $40 with shipping. This also includes a secondary mirror. It would make a decent long tube for a narrow field of view.

A 6" F5 mirror seems to be about $80. This would make a nice wide field scope. including a spider and mirror cell it would run me about $150.

If I want to go larger then I found a 12" F4.5 with secondary for about $399. It would need a mirror cell and a bunch of other stuff. This is a plan for the future.

I think for now the 6" rich field scope makes the most sense.