Those cheaper brands...

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

So i'm thinking of a little weekend project - I want to build a scope. I like the idea of a baby truss dob because they look so darn cute, but it'd also be great for those "hand luggage" situations.

I also quite like the idea of giving it as a gift to some lucky child who knows me, so want to keep it fairly cheap.

The idea of building a dob seems pretty easy in my head, and i already have the 200p, but i rather fancy a long FL refractor, around F10, for some contrasty planetary stuff.

I'm pretty handy, and i'm not thinking too much about design specifics yet, just curious about the heart of these scopes - the optics.

I have an old scope, which i can get to in about a week or so. As far as i can remember it was a 76mm reflector, maybe 114mm, but it was a cheapy, maybe tasco. This will probably end up being chopped up and brought home from spain, then made into the babydob.

There are also the mirror sets currently available on Astroboot, which are salvaged from skywatchers i believe. The 114mm is £30 i think, which seems reasonable, but in the photo it looks as the the spider is resting on the primary...

So, is it even worth me trying the trashco optics for the gift project? Or are they THAT bad, that it just isn't worth it? If optics are similar in these cheaper brands, but build quality is rubbish and plasticy, then i'm pretty sure more people would be buying them and sticking the optics in their own creations.

It's tough to find a reasonable sized, cheap, long FL frac objective (i know that's silly, i just read it back to myself), or any frac objectives tbh. I'm considering just grabbing a 80-90mm cheapy and tearing it apart for my own project. Again, worth it? or are these optics THAT bad?

[garethmob]

There's mirrors on astroboot and secondarys. Get a card tube some truss tubes and make a basic cheap flex:)

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[John]

The worst thing about Tasco scopes were usually their mounts and eyepieces. The actual optics (ie: mirrors / objective lenses) are not that bad I reckon.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Cheers guys. I'l see what happens first.

I'm off to spain on wednesday so i'l see if my old mirrors are any good, if not i'l have a look round for some cheap scopes i can rip apart, if i don't find anything decent in a matter of weeks then i'l just grab a mirror set from astroboot and keep an eye peeled for a frac objective...