Chriske

Good idea...! And indeed interconnecting them is an absolute must.

That is a combination of science, art and skill... I'm drooling man...!!!

And these are extra flat baffles that will be installed between the baffles shown in the picture here above. Holes in these baffles is 50mm. The inner diameter of that first flat baffle (seen from the secondary mirror) should be correct. If the diameter is to small it will act as an obstruction to the incoming light, ending up with darker images. If that diameter is chosen to large, direct light from the Moon will enter at a shallow angle into the secondary tube. It needs to be perfect. When it is, these scope deliver high contrast images.

Thanks for the kind words, And one more thing Tony, I forgot to mention here above(mentioned it somewhere else before if I'm not mistake). I never, ever, use dark colours printing telescope-parts if that scope (or other project in the garden) are exposed to the sun. Did some thorough tests with printed parts, in different colours, in the past. White filament (even PLA(!)) is the absolute winner whenever these printed parts are exposed to the sun for months in a row. Needles to say black is the big loser here. It deforms and sags enormously in the sun. The inner surfaces of all my scopes and parts are painted black of course.

Hey Tony, Thanks for the info. To be honest when we first started working and investigating the possibilities of 3D printers we were not planning to do the things I do right now. About 6 years ago when we made our first we were eager to find out what we could do with these 'toys'(as my my wife used to call it). Nowadays my wife don't call it no more 'toys for boys' as she very often ask me if I could repair or even make items to be used in combination with her own hobby(s). Anyway, I'm always pushing things, see how far I can go(story of my life...). As a mechanical engineer I do have a good idea how things should be built strong and most of all very stiff. But in this case, working with printers, (making plastic parts) it is a completely other story. I have to 'reinvent' again all the techniques I am familiar with. I do design all projects myself. One of he first things I had to learn was how to make printed parts as strong as aluparts. First rule : NO slim-line parts ever..! Second was the major advantage compared to classical (mechanically) made parts : all parts that has been drawn can be printed. Even the most complex parts are printable...! Not feasible, using the most sophisticated CNC machines. I do have discussions about this with other CNC(mill) users, until I show them a few parts I printed, asking if they’re capable of making that in aluminium. Not..! But..! I always combine printed parts with metal or alu parts. There's no way I print an entire scope just using PLA(or whatever). I carefully combine metalwork and printed parts. In fact the major structure as in this project, is 3 alupoles mounted in a shallow triangle. These poles are the basis of the scope. When I print a few parts for holding these poles tightly in place, I can do whatever I want to finish it of with printed parts to make a scope out of it. The primary cage of this Greg. has 6 separate parts bolted together with M6 bolts. Additionally : inside the mirror-cell are a few long 8mm rods(not visible) to make things very stiff. I can assure you Tony there's no way that thing will sag or bend. Yesterday I reprinted the secondary cage because : not stiff enough at all. So this is the one I'll be using now. On the left the old and on the right the new secondary cage. The new one has the same wall-thickness and is very stiff. (I still need to remove a few burrs and some stringing, I know...) To be clear on the matter. This new circular 'spider' is very high. I can use this high version because this scope has a very narrow TF(focal length 6(!)meter). If it were a short(er) focus 'light-bucket' I would not go for this solution of course. I'd probably go for a completely other setup to build that secondary cage.

Just finished printing live size(almost) 'first step'. 300x200mm. Print time 39 hours. When it was about half way printing there was a glitch. Printhead shifted a few millimetres sideways...DAM...! Something went wrong during slicing imo. I printed lots of Bino parts, Marc's Gregorian telescope parts, four 2 meter high SaturnV rockets + some other smaller projects for my wife. NEVER had any problem at all during printing, all my prints were perfect and now during that long print I got this glitch...DAM again..!!(sorry guys).

Thanks guys for the kind words. Borrowed an adjustable reamer from a friend to clean up all the holes for these poles.

I know the alignment is very critical in these scopes. But again I did not print these parts slim-line. That's why. Although I could do a stress analysis in Inventor I did not preform it because there's no need to. In the past I made a few of these scopes, even single pole-scopes. Never I had any problem with them. If you could only hold these printed parts in your hand you would not doubt for a moment these parts will ever deform. As a matter of fact the COG is very close to the primary cage. Next there are three poles in a shallow triangular configuration going upward to the secondary cage that is not to heavy. I'm not worried at all. Thanks for mentioning this anyway Andrew..😉

Zambuto...!!!! Wooooooooow....!😱....💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰

Meanwhile all parts of this one are printed ( all done with a 0.7mm nozzle) Busy assembling the scope, together with my dear pal Marc. (he's very ill) The part at the left are actually four separate parts already bolted together. There was no way I could print this in one piece. But using a handful of M6 bolts this primary cage is very stiff and very strong. There's no way you can call these parts 'slimline', but that was the initial idea. Lower centre part is the actual mirror-holder and also the primary baffle will be mounted onto this part. Both primary mirror and light-baffle can be adjusted separately. Upper centre is the part that connects to the mount. And right is the secondary 'cage' and baffle. And the last picture is showing the slit that holds the thin shield around the primary mirror(if necessary)

Well, lets say Gina and I have about the same interests about printer-stuff, particularly about size...😁

Thank you... The manager of our observatory was very happy with these rockets... and challenged me to print the Hubble space telescope. 1/10 scale...!...😳 Needles to say I said yes. The only problem is I don't have a printer that can handle this size... Diameter of Hubble is 4.2 meter...🤔

This year alone I had lots of printing project and also end up with lots of 2.2kg reels with a few meters filament on them. Problem is I almost always print very large parts, ending up with all my reels containing a few meters 'leftovers' . 99% what I print is done in white, so I'm planning to weld all these 'ends' to make one new reel. Think I've got an idea how to do that. Did a test a few days ago and it seems to work.

Don't use it myself but the Prusa slicer is very good indeed. In the near past we've compared a few slicers and the result was that the Prusa slicer and S3D were the best and gave similar results.

Just installed these SaturnV rockets at our observatory. Two were mounted on 500mm high console and others were mounted on a 1 meter high console. Standing 3 meters high, very impressive I might say. Wonder what little children will think standing in front of these SaturnV rockets. I can imagine it will be most imposing. Forgot to take a picture. I'll post one later.

All my printers have just one nozzle(fast interchangeable btw) never regretted it, never needed dual nozzle systems. I always design/draw my own projects and draw/print in such a way I don't need to use support at all. Never used that 'Support' function as a matter of fact. And as Julian said, dual colour printing is just a gimmick indeed.

My van is filled with rockets...😁 What would police think about my cargo if they discovered these in my van... Nothing to fear, I could say, without a launcher...🤭 The fourth one I will paint later. Need to continue working on my bino now.

I think that NasaLiza is the modern look. I was thinking using these

Last week the manager of our observatory has for the first time seen that rocket I've just printed. To make a long story short, I'm busy printing 3 more of these rockets. Two more parts to go and I'm done printing. Probably today I'll start painting the black parts. What I can't find is what they used for the lettering. I cant find what typeset 'USA' is written in.

And no, these same moulds will not be used by our chef to make his chocolate 'First steps'. He's got a completely other, brand new and clean, set of moulds...😉

Busy filing the moulds with concrete. Not really concrete of course, its a mix of fast drying cement mixed with sand and water. I also added some thin steel wiring to reinforce the 'First step'. Needed to find out what the correct mix should be and as always the first came out very bad. Big holes... And the text broke of while de-moulding concrete 'First step'. So I cut the text out of the mould. For concrete version this text is way to small. Still some very small air gaps, but I think these are impacts from micro-meteorites after that step has been set...

Next set moulds already busy drying... Not all text came out perfectly...

Well, as a matter of fact, Bjorn our chef, is busy making a big chocolate SaturnV rocket, a very BIG one..!! When he's done, I'll post a picture, just to tease you all....🤭 And what's more I'm the one going to join the party, eating it...😁

Making a a few extra silicone moulds to speed up production of Neils chocolate footstep. And maybe I'll organize also something for the children during open door mid sept. Interested kids could fill up a similar 'first step'mould with fast drying cement(or resin), to take it home. Don't know yet. double sided adhesive tape to hold 'first step' down. Preventing it from floating while the silicone cures. Infill is only 10% so full of air.

Painting the secondary tube's baffles. Easy job because I didn’t had to rotate the cylinders while spraying the paint. Due to the pressure of the aerosol container the baffles ran by themselves, so I only had to follow the baffles.