DIY dob for a 250 PDS

[Kusanagi]

Hi after wanting a scope for over  thirty years I  finally got  around to buying one ( a second hand 250 PDS ) and as I am at the moment only going to using it for visual use I thought that a dob mount would do the job. With this in mind I did lots of research and then designed my dob stand to suit my scope, the dob was mainly constructed of chipboard, laminate worktop and hardwood I had laying around left after other DIY projects from around the house.

 I also machined up some nylon bearings to run on the laminate surfaces of the altitude and azimuth bearings ( this is quite smooth but it needs a little lubrication with some Teflon spay every now and again ) and to make moving it around a little easy I fixed some braked casters to the base, The dob was also sprayed with some paint I had left over from spaying my car.

There are some further mods I will be making in future such as making the dob easy to take apart so I can get it in the back of a car and I fully intend to make and fit a DIY digital turning circle setup which will be paired to sky safari on my tablet at a later date, but first I want to get some viewing in as it stands.

[Kusanagi]

Well had this out tonight for its first proper use thanks to a neighbour  who lent me some short focal length plossel  lenses and all I can say is wow, we hit the pleiades  then  Andromeda then the north American nebula ( which was not to good thanks to poor seeing ) and mars, then the moon which even with some cloud was fantastic.