The rocker box is a major structural component of a dobsonian mount. Collapsible dobsonians feature a onepiece optical tube assembly that is capable of collapsing upon itself to reduce the overall length. Skywatcher 8 goto collapsible dobsonian telescope opt. It provides big lightbucket gathering, good optical quality and unique utility. The test is to look through the focuser without an eyepiece. The second part of a dobsonian telescope is the mount. The lens at the other end of the telescope is called the objective lens. Engineering lightweight dobsonian telescopes 20 update. The dobsonian mount we are building uses rings of pvc pipe traveling on nylon. A quick look at the long awaited explore scientific 16 compact dobsonian. Skywatcher improves on the often unwieldy standard design of dobsonians with their 10 f4. Building a telescope theory a b objective science and mathematics standards materials in a telescope, the lens held next to your eye is called the eyepiece and is usually a short focal length lens or a combination of lenses.
Once the telescope is aligned, the goto system allows the user to slew the telescope toward planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies, clusters and much more. The mirror is gorgeous, as is typical for roger who is one of the best opticians i know. It features a patented truss tube system that enables the front corrector plateeyepiece assembly to be moved back and locked against the main rear tube to greatly reduce the size of the ota for storage and transportation. Again, john dobsons telescopemaking videolisted in sources shows the construction of a 16. As shown at left, the scope can be transported or stored ready for use in this configuration.
When he had finished the final tweaking, a new altazimuth mount was born. Unfortunately, the standard sizes are 1 and 2 meters in length. From what i see dobsonian moving mechanism allows the eyepiece to stay on the same side all the time and above all theres no need to rotate the tube or use counterweights. Tom clark, former editor of amateur astronomy magazine, also offers an advanced book on dobsonian telescope building, the modern dobsonian. The 8inch skywatcher dobsonian synscan is precision engineered telescope that will allow you to easily find and enjoy night sky treasures like saturn, jupiter, and other planets in the solar system, plug a huge array of deepsky objects including galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, and more. More than half a century later, dobsonian telescopes are still a favorite among experienced stargazers for providing the handsdown best valueperdollar on the telescope. Orion 8944 skyquest xt6 classic dobsonian telescope. In the 1960s, john dobsons simple new telescope design revolutionized the hobby of amateur astronomy and brought sidewalk astronomy to the masses. Here you will find plans to build this telescope, or a smaller oneeither a 4. My wife and i want to get an 8 dobsonian, but the fullsized rigs wont fit in the car without folding the seats down and consequently booting one or more children from the vehicle.
Skywatcher 12 goto collapsible dobsonian telescope opt. Pioneered by john dobson in the 1960s, the instrument combines a newtonian reflector telescope with a unique twoaxis movable base. Buildascope 14 intelliscope truss dobsonian telescope. Corresponding to the escalating aperture fever that has gripped amateur astronomy for several decades, an 8 diameter is now generally regarded as the minimum entrylevel aperture for serious observing.
With the portable orion buildascope 14 intelliscope truss dobsonian telescope, you select the accessories for customized astronomical adventures. The oriondesigned collapsible dobsonian base, made of fully 1thick laminated wood panels for rocksolid stability, adds to the portability of the xx14i telescope. Sixinch telescope overview with plywood cut pattern. Comments on the skywatcher 8 collapsible dobsonian. Bushnell ares 5 dobsonian telescope opticsplanet edition. The base quickly breaks down into four pieces without tools, to easily fit into standard sized automobiles. The mm reflector, 650mm focal length is large enough to take this telescope out of the toy category, and is rapidly. The synscan az hand control allows you point your telescope. Dobsonian telescope plans pdf new pdf download service.
The telescope could be pointed to anywhere in the sky by either rotating the box on the lazysuzan base, or by pushing the telescope up or down. San francisco sidewalk astronomers building telescopes. Oct 09, 2008 you, too, can avoid astronomical costs by watching stars through a trickedout cardboard tube. Mostly because their plans were easy to follow, and inexpensive. Mar 10, 2016 skywatcher 12 collapsible dobsonian telescope. Skywatcher 10 goto collapsible dobsonian telescope. Skywatcher 10 collapsible dobsonian dobsonians 10 40. The 8 dobsonian telescope from skywatcher is a largeaperture, short focallength, newtonian reflector. He enabled the average amateur telescope maker atm to create a large and very stable telescope with common workshop tools.
My first real telescope was an odyssey 8inch dobsonian purchased in 1987. The bushnell compact ares 5 dobsonian telescope is a simple, easy to use, nontechnical telescopes that is still large enough to provide real performance. Dob building adventure with you, hopefully adding some additional fresh ideas. The standard reference for people wishing to build a trusstube style dobsonian telescope is the dobsonian telescope. Pm builds one and speaks to john dobson, the man behind the plans, about the joys of diy astronomy. I was fourteen when i bought and read this for the first time, and for my age i found it very easy to follow on most of the construction of the parts. Dobsonian telescopes best for deep space observing. Grab the telescope tube with both hands at the positions indicated in the diagram below. Focuser the focuser for this telescope is a simple helical focuser. The mount works via friction, just little enough to easily move the telescope, but yet.
Skywatcher 12 goto collapsible dobsonian telescope. Draw the outline of the upper part of the mount on the azimuth bearing board. Take one azimuth bearing board, and put the upper part of the mount on top, aligning the marks on the boards you draw earlier. The dobsonian telescope, a practical manual for building. A dobsonian telescope is a newtonian reflector mounted on a simple yet stable altazimuth lazy susan style mount. During assembly of our telescopes outdoor grade wood glue is used to further enhance the strength of this connection. Every step of construction is detailed in photographs and diagrams, and the underlying ideas are carefully explained. Even if you dont build this particular telescope you might find some helpful and moneysaving ideas you can use.
Ray cashs san francisco sidewalk astronomers dobsonian telescope plans. The resolution boils down to the fine art of adjusting the equilibrium point of the tube and providing just the right amount of friction in the mounting. Dobsons telescopes featured a simplified mechanical design that was easy to manufacture from readily available components to create a large, portable, lowcost telescope. The mount works via friction, just little enough to easily move the telescope, but yet enough that the telescope remains pointed. The dobsonian telescope, a practical manual for building large aperture telescopes tells how you can build a stateoftheart dobsonian telescope using readily available materials and supplies. Galileos best telescope magnified objects about 30 times. In this section we will show you how to build a complete dobsonian telescope.
With its patented collapsible tube design, these dobsonians are truly the ultimate in portability and performance. Teeters telescopes highquality trussdobsonian components. As with the optical part the mount is just as simple, if not more so. I have used many of his ideas when building my telescope. We were just about to give up and buy a smaller scope when i saw this collapsible dobsonian on amazon. If you have a 150 mm f8 mirror, a 200 mm od tube is needed. As this telescope was going to have a fan on the mirror cell and a dry eye antidew system, i wanted to try and avoid having cables running up and down the tube.
The 12inch collapsible dobsonian with synscan goto by skywatcher, is a large aperture, precision engineered telescope that will allow you to easily find and enjoy night sky treasures like saturn, jupiter, and other planets in the solar system, plus a huge array of deepsky objects including galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, and more. I based my design on the telescope plans provided by ray cash, a member of the san francisco sidewalk astronomers, modifying the plans even further with a few readymade parts. Mar 22, 2011 the second part of a dobsonian telescope is the mount. A basic manual mount which supports the optical tube and can be. The buildascope xx14i intelliscope dobsonian turns the night sky into an endless playground of deepspace surprises for intermediate and advanced observing enthusiasts. It used a convergent planoconvex objective lens and a divergent planoconcave eyepiece lens. Having said that, perfect telescopes dont exist and im sure a dob is not an exception. You, too, can avoid astronomical costs by watching stars through a trickedout cardboard tube. So here i am, a complete newbie with no idea of what telescope to buy. The skywatcher 10inch collapsible goto dob is precision engineered instrument that will allow you to easily find and enjoy viewing night sky treasures, such as planets, nebulae, star clusters, galaxies and much more. Discuss this article in our forums skywatcher 8inch collapsible dobsonian telescope manufacturers code. The telescope frame can be dripping in dew yet the mirror stays dry. A practical manual for building large aperture telescopes by david kriege and richard berry. Some time ago my friend bill lofquist bought a dobsonian telescope from roger ceragioli.
Click here see all details for skywatcher 8 collapsible dobsonian telescope. The same plans can be downloaded in pdf format here. On the top side, it supports the teflon pads for the altitude bearings, and on its bottom side, it has laminate and a pivot bolt hole for the azimuth bearing. Consequently i do not bother with a full on shroud. Although some information is a little dated, the concept behind all the components makes a lot of sense structurally. Plans for a dobsonian telescope 150 mm mount 200 mm mount at this point, you can also buy the tube, and the altitude bearings. Magnification x telescope focal length mmeyepiece focal length mm ex. Dobsons telescopes featured a simplified mechanical design that was easy to manufacture from readily available components to create a large. The original design galileo galilei came up with in 1609 is commonly called a galilean telescope. Tighten the locking screw to secure the tube in place.
As a teacher of telescope making, he could be impatient, even rude, so. You can also make this mount out of 19 mm plywood, or laminated wood. The telescope tube only took a few simple modifications to allow it to ride on the base. Flextube 300p synscan goto collapsible dobsonian sky. Once the telescope is aligned, the goto system allows the user to slew the telescope toward. Dobsonian telescopes are popular with amateur telescope makers for their ease of design and construction, portability, and their use of large optical mirrors. These telescopes are named for their designer, john dobson, who sought to build a low cost large aperture telescope.
We have the telescope plans scanned but there are also many sites that have plans and videos. Align the side bearings of the tube to the mounting platforms on the inner side of the side boards. A dobsonian telescope is an altazimuthmounted newtonian telescope design popularized by john dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. The 12 travel dob made by ulli vedder set a benchmark for this kind of telescopes. Page 30 astronomy formulas for your zhumell dobsonian telescope magnification to determine the magnification of a telescope and eyepiece combination, divide the telescope focal length be the eye piece focal length. The upper end is designed to baffle the field of view from stray light, obviating a shroud.
After having completed my 22 lowrider dobsonian, i wanted to redesign my 14 dob built in 2003 into a compact ultra light travel dobsonian. I have an apo triplet of rogers that is a prized possession. This oustanding innovation allows the user to keep their scope assembled into two major sections, which allows for quicker assembly in the field as compared with other similar trussdobsonian designs. The lower part of the tube with the primary mirror and upper part with the secondary mirror and focuser are permanently connected with metal poles.
Plans for a dobsonian telescope it is an newtonian optical tube, mounted on a very simple, yet very stable and easy to use alt azimuth mount. She then followed the stellafane dob plans exactly and crafted a beautiful telescope to house her mirror. Yes, it looks like a cannon, but the above is really a teninch measured by the diameter of the objective newtonian telescope that almost anybody can build. Jan 22, 20 the original design galileo galilei came up with in 1609 is commonly called a galilean telescope. The skywatcher 10inch collapsible dobsonian my first real telescope was an odyssey 8inch dobsonian purchased in 1987. In separate article, i wrote about correcting the problem of the clubs telescope not holding its position in altitude. These plans are only slightly modified from the plans the sidewalk astronomers have been sending to. This manual can be used also as an educational tool to teach students, club. Plans for a home made telescope building a telescope.
Engineering lightweight dobsonin telescopes pge 1111 part 1 of 4 by lonnie robinson updated 20 introduction john dobson really started something with his dobsonian dob telescope design. This scope revealed the deep sky universe to me, and i used it for many years until i became interested in other kinds of telescopes. This six inch reflector is very close to the perfect telescope in. Bushnell ares 5 truss tube dobsonian telescope 785000 is available exclusively from our online store opticsplanet. The skywatcher collapsible goto dobsonian combines the great light gathering of the dobson telescope with the convenience of the computerised system synscan. It is an newtonian optical tube, mounted on a very simple, yet very stable and easy to use alt azimuth mount. Every rockerbox and mirrorbox for our telescopes employs a dadoed groove that a matching dadoed tongue slips into, at right angles to one another. It has an inspiring simple construction, emphasizing easeofuse and greater aperture for lower cost. With its patented collapsible tube design, these dobsonians are truly the ultimate in portability. Roger had built the scope to provide a home for a beautiful 12. Why are dobsonian telescopes a favorite among amateur.
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