Chriske

No not at all. I made it at exactly the same scale as our HST model. The hex mirror I used are not 100% correct, they differ only 1mm with what it should be at 1:7 scale. But nobody will notice...😉

Of course not, it needs to be launched first before final collimation...🤣

Almost done, ok for the clips to make, but some minor things to do before completely done..

I wonder, are there other JWST scale models built by amateurs...?

Today JW will be fully assembled for the first time, but will not be hung as planned. It will be placed on top of a table instead. Our astronautics specialist will make short clips and add comments about JWST and use these clips during Urania livestream when the real JW is launched. Most probably our JW will finale be hung in our planetarium next week.

Hi, my son and I are planning to start shooting the stars.... First item I made this afternoon is a adaptor for is smartphone. Just to see how far we can go with that thing. It's one of the recent phones, and it has three lenses. The centre one seems to be the one we need. Are there any books to download how to use a smartphone in combination with a telescope...? Thanks guys..! Later on we're planning to work our way up using a real camera and bigger telescopes.

...still at it... Had lots of problems(the same as my NASA colleagues...🤣) with the solarshields. But the last version seems to work. With a bit of luck ours will be hung next Wednesday. Fingers crossed...

No 'launch' yesterday due to some problems with the large solars screens. Most probably it will be launched early next week.

Of course I did not made these large sunshields the same way as the real thing. I had to come up with something completely different. I had to stretch a thin steel cable around bolts and used a selfmade cable tensioner. This is what I came up with.

ETL will be Thursday afternoon next week btw...😉 No delays are expected so far...😀

This one is almost finished also. It needs the large protective shields to have it done. It is the largest part of JWST. When finished it measures 3x2 meter. The real thing is 20x14 meter...😳 This is how it looks like inside. When it is all done a thick 50mm pole will be mounted through both parts, the telescope part and this one. That pole hold it all together. One of the holes for that pole is visible at the bottom side of this part.

Busy assembling all parts. I hope to hang it on the ceiling by end of next week. Telescope nearly done. Only secondary mirror to glue into into its holder.

Peter just finished drawing the lower(conical) part of Saturn's LUT. This is a screenshot taken with his smartphone This is just one of the many rather complex junction of that lower part...

Still at it, Just finished one of the LUT's floors. The floor need some painting and I need to add the typical red perimeter around each floor. We need 18 of these. LUT alone will be 3.4m high.

Still at it... ETL maybe next week...

Hold your horses Rob...!..😳 This thing will never work, it was never intended to do so. It's only a 1:7 scale model to be added to the rest of the models in our local observatory. The mirrors are flats. I was lucky that the set hex. IKEA mirrors are exactly the size I needed. They come in a set of 5 'aluminium' + 5 'goldisch' coating. So in the end I'll end up with 20 alu hex. mirrors. with no purpose.

The two attempts, described higher up, to glue that sec. mirror are not 'standard' procedures. (in fact completely wrong, sorry) During course we always glue the sec mirror with only three small dots of silicone(near the edge). Distance between mirror and holder about 2mm, to allow better and evenly cooling of the mirror. During our nearly 40 years of course we've glued literal hundreds of sec mirrors. never had any issues. Look at the shape of the defocused stars and look at the shape of the silicone ring... Seems familiar...?

Will it work...? Well, I do not know yet, just like its big brother it needs lots of testing..😉😁 Compared to the other rocket projects I've posted here there's not to much printing involved this time. The mirror supports a few minor parts will be printed. The rest is plywood, aluminium poles, some steel cables and the mylar sheets.

To late, JWST will be launched next month...😁

Busy assembling JWST primary mirror.

Not my cup of tea....😳😳😳😳

ok, now I'v got it..! I thought the upper grey and black part were also printed...silly me...😁 Suggestion, change the threaded rod with something more stable, as Peter also explained. I'd print a wedge to fill in that gap + a little possible polar tuning. Or is there really need for that long threaded rod..? That rod btw: nice print, very nice print indeed...!

Hey, Nice 3D-print project. Could you explain a bit more how this tracker works. I can't figure out how you track stars with this device(it's probably me, I know, sorry...😳)

One row done, seven more to go... Need to buy 470 nuts and bolts M3...😯