Telescope Making
By Peter De Baan
My hobbies are Astronomy and making Telescopes.
The telescope you see below is a 10 inch Dobsonian with a home made mirror,
made from glued Baltic birch plywood
Some features are:
breaks down into 3 pieces for easy movement and carrying, reassembles in a minute.
easy removable pneumatic tired wheels for easy rolling when assembled,
yet a solid base that does not shake or slide when stood up.
built-in mirror fan for fast temperature equalization.
an equatorial platform for tracking the heavens
a built in green laser for star pointing,
multiple pockets and holders for lenses, red flashlight and other stuff.
Shown below next to telescope is a mirror binocular to make binocular sky-viewing easy, by looking down,
and it is more comfortable not to have to hold the binoculars
I also made an equatorial platform for the scope which is also on wheels
Click on picture to see larger version
Above left is a wooden "wedge" for my LX90, middle is a wooden trapezoid binocular mount
on the right is the so called "barn door" tracking camera mount
Bottom picture is a setup to allow use of sight from the front of telescope using small adjustable mirror
Below are scale model pictures and drawings for the "Mussel-shell" observatory
The plans are for a 8ft x 8ft observatory with 6ft high side walls when folded open
and a 32 square foot floor when closed , It can be made weatherproof , lockable and
insulated, therefore one can use it for storing the astronomy equipment.
Model open Model closed
rear view when closed side view open and closed
back view when open front view open with closed doors Floor plan
M u s s e l-s h e l l - S c h a l e t O b s e r v a t o r y
My Mussle Shell Observatory model for an 8ft x 8ft with 6ft high sidewalls
can be mounted on a concrete slab ( with or without a pier foundation) or
will be exellent to mount on a trailer.
I helped my friend Jose with the carpentry part of building his 24" Dobsonian following the plans of Berry's book ......................Then I mounted wheels and handles on the rocker-box for easy moving the 200lb telescope. Below are pictures showing how, The nice part is that the wheels are under the rocker-box and thereby carry a large part of the weight and are easy stored on the rocker-box side or completely removed
The rocker box with the flip wheels 1/3 the box weight on the handle flips the wheels, remove the handles
The wheels are folded and can be removed with axel. The triangle floor board can freely turn when wheels are folded
The 24" arrived at location Flip the wheels from under and aside, remove handles
