Homemade dobsonians

[Astrodread]

Hello to all who stubble upon this thread. I thought i would post a photo of my homemade 10" trusstube dobsonian. I would love to see yours if you have made one.

I purchased a skywatcher 250pds stripped the optics focuser and finder out in the intention of making a compact scope that i could pack away for holidays and such. i took ideas for The wonderful Obsession telescopes and other nice scope designs and came up with a design that suits my needs. The out come im most happy with it performs very well. It is high maintance but i love that. I have the A team music in my head every time i essemble it.

Thanks for reading.

Pete (astrodread)

[Moonshane]

this is great!

any chance you could provide more pics and some details of what you have used for what bits etc please

[Telrad]

Really nice looking dob Pete. I can hear the A Team music too now!

Well done

[Moonshane]

quit yo jibber jabber....fool!!

[Telrad]

..quickly, ply him with milk laced with sedatives

[Moonshane]

hey, maybe you should be Mr T(elrad)??

[Telrad]

hey, maybe you should be Mr T(elrad)??

You could be "Howling Mad" Moonshane?

[Moonshane]

[Telrad]

I love it when a Dobsonian comes together..

[Astrodread]

Be a pleasure Moonshane

The truss tubes poles are 2 hama tripods broken up theye are all fixed together at the tops and bottoms and they extend out 2 foot further so if i wonna put longer focal length mirror thats no problem and when i pack it down the poles are only 2 foot long. The bulk of the scope is make from basic 18mm ply you get from b&q and sprayed black. Black is always best. i got an light shroud from the astro boot and cut that up for the upper tube assembly. and for a baffle around the primary. I also salvaged Aluminium bits from this and that and cut to shape for brackets and many other parts.

I went for the 250pds as it has the dual focuser. and im so happy i did. Every scope should have that,

At some point i will strip it down to its parts and take photos of each bit and give a description of how it went together.

diagnostics display

The display is a battery and thermometer read out for a car it has an external senser that ive attached to the back of the primary mirror so you get ambient temprature and mirror temperature read outs. The zipped bag has a 12v 7ah battery that runs a homemade dual dew controllers just off camera to the right and a fan behind the mirror.So the display also shows me how much juice ive left in the on board battery which also doubles up as a counter weight.

Any questions dont hesitate to ask.

Pete (Astrodread)

[Astrodread]

hahaha you guys crack me up. New film was cool. always thought Jim carrey would make a good merdock

[Telrad]

Pete, that's a novel idea with the external sensor from a car for ambient and mirror temperature..

[Astrodread]

when i saw it on ebay i thought i know what thats for. they do better ones that give out hydro readings and more I imagen that it could be real handy for us.

[Telrad]

when i saw it on ebay i thought i know what thats for. they do better ones that give out hydro readings and more I imagen that it could be real handy for us.

I'm going to definitely try making a dob in the future, some excellent ideas here Pete! Thanks for sharing these

[Moonshane]

wow - I am well impressed mate

I like the low rider nature of the whole thing and the novel use of materials - just my cup of tea

pics of the dismantling will be great.

[Moonshane]

I bet you could even get this packed down eventually to such a size where you could carry it on a plane as hand luggage......but wait......of course........I ain't gettin 'on no plane fool!!

[Astrodread]

hehe that was the idea but then you get carried away with the bits and bobs. i might try making a simple aluminium version try and get the weight down.

Real what made me jump in and do it was this thought. if you make everything adjustable then you cant go far wrong. Its all in the setting up and collimation. hehe i think