Show us your homemade telescopes!

[spacegalaxy]

Just as the title, show us your homemade scope! Please also include aperture, focal lenght or ratio and performance.

Mine: I have a 60mm f/11.5 in a unfinished state, which I will post pics of when completed!

Clear skies!

[johninderby]

Big Red my homebuilt 100mm f/13 refractor using Japanese Carton optics. A magical scope on the planets and has seen off some very good 100mm APOs. 

Edited February 17, 2022 by johninderby

[davidc135]

95mm F/16 with a home made Littrow achromat. In the background are the ruins of Clifford castle, birthplace of Fair Rosamund.  David

[spacegalaxy]

5 minutes ago, davidc135 said:

95mm F/16 with a home made Littrow achromat. In the background are the ruins of Clifford castle, birthplace of Fair Rosamund.  David

Wow! There must be no false color! I always loved the olive green - yellow colour combination? I wonder how it performs on the moon?

[mikeDnight]

Well its a work in progress, and so far I've had nothing to do with the build process, but it is technically a home build as far as I'm aware. 

On Friday last, I picked up a 150mm F10 achromat at a very reasonable price. It's a Heinz 57, made up of various bits and bobs from other scopes but its functional.

After getting the scope home I laid it on the kitchen table, aimed it through the double glazing at houses across town and thought it was very good. The main thing that amazed me was the high level of colour correction. It wasn't until darkness fell that things turned out to be not so good. Still on its kitchen table mount and looking through double glazing, I aimed the scope at the street lights at the other side of town only to see the worst spherical abberation I'd ever seen. The Ronchi lines were a strong barrel shape, while alongside the 150mm, and aimed through the same double glazed window, my Genesis SDF and FC100DZ  showed perfect street lights and perfectly straight ronchi lines. Later I was able to mount the scope in my observatory and take advantage of a clearing sky. Again the star images were surrounded by a destructive spherical blur that prevented any kind of true focus.

I remembered in Leslie Peltier's Starlight Nights, that Leslie had the same problem with a 12" Clarke refractor, so I re-read the relative paragraphs, then e-mailed Peter Drew for his expert opinion. It appeared the most likely cause was that the beautiful Edmunds lens had been installed into its cell facing backwards. It was getting late but I couldn't wait until morning. I struggled to remove the glue blobs holding the lens retaining ring in position but eventually the ring unscrewed freely. I carefully removed the lens group, and to my immediate relief saw the thicker edged flint was indeed  at the front. To reinforce my belief, I then noticed written in pencil on the lens edges the numbers 4,3,2,1. The lens had been fit in reverse. I cleaned the outer surfaces before refitting the lens back in its cell. The clouds had rolled in by now, so back to my trusty street light through double glazing test, and what a relief it was to see sharply defined street lights. I went to bed very happy!

Tonight, after 48hrs of first heavy snow, then torrential rain and high winds, the sky cleared briefly. I set the scope up in the observatory and aimed it at a bright star (several in fact). Wow is this a beautiful lens! The diffraction pattern at both sides of focus was identical, while in focus it was perfection at X333.

As I mentioned at the outset, this is now a work in progress, and now that I'm convinced of the high quality of the lens, I can now start working on it to turn it into something beautiful. Not certain how it will end up looking, but I'm hoping it's going to be a heart stopper.

Below is the Edmund's 150mm F10 achromat as it stands at present.

Edited February 20, 2022 by mikeDnight

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

Well its a work in progress, and so far I've had nothing to do with the build process, but it is technically a home build as far as I'm aware. 

On Friday last, I picked up a 150mm F10 achromat at a very reasonable price. It's a Heinz 57, made up of various bits and bobs from other scopes but its functional.

After getting the scope home I laid it on the kitchen table, aimed it through the double glazing at houses across town and thought it was very good. The main thing that amazed me was the high level of colour correction. It wasn't until darkness fell that things turned out to be not so good. Still on its kitchen table mount and looking through double glazing, I aimed the scope at the street lights at the other side of town only to see the worst spherical abberation I'd ever seen. The Ronchi lines were a strong barrel shape, while alongside the 150mm, and aimed through the same double glazed window, my Genesis SDF and FC100DZ  showed perfect street lights and perfectly straight ronchi lines. Later I was able to mount the scope in my observatory and take advantage of a clearing sky. Again the star images were surrounded by a destructive spherical blur that prevented any kind of true focus.

I remembered in Leslie Peltier's Starlight Nights, that Leslie had the same problem with a 12" Clarke refractor, so I re-read the relative paragraphs, then e-mailed Peter Drew for his expert opinion. It appeared the most likely cause was that the beautiful Edmunds lens had been installed into its cell facing backwards. It was getting late but I couldn't wait until morning. I struggled to remove the glue blobs holding the lens retaining ring in position but eventually the ring unscrewed freely. I carefully removed the lens group, and to my immediate relief saw the thicker edged flint was indeed  at the front. To reinforce my belief, I then noticed written in pencil on the lens edges the numbers 4,3,2,1. The lens had been fit in reverse. I cleaned the outer surfaces before refitting the lens back in its cell. The clouds had rolled in by now, so back to my trusty street light through double glazing test, and what a relief it was to see sharply defined street lights. I went to bed very happy!

Tonight, after 48hrs of first heavy snow, then torrential rain and high winds, the sky cleared briefly. I set the scope up in the observatory and aimed it at a bright star (several in fact). Wow is this a beautiful lens! The diffraction pattern at both sides of focus was identical, while in focus it was perfection at X333.

As I mentioned at the outset, this is now a work in progress, and now that I'm convinced of the high quality of the lens, I can now start working on it to turn it into something beautiful. Not certain how it will end up looking, but I'm hoping it's going to be a heart stopper.

Below is the Edmund's 150mm F10 achromat as it stands at present.

This is going to be an  interesting story, Mike.

Glad you got the lens sorted out. First view and you must have thought your were looking through an SCT 🤣

What is the EQ mount? Looks intriguing 

Edited February 20, 2022 by JeremyS

[mikeDnight]

Hi Jeremy,

 It should be interesting to see how things progress. I'll update things as they develope..

 The equatorial mount is what was termed a Cygnus mount, manufactured back in the late 80's by my friend Phil who ran a kind if telescope business.  I bought it from a chap in Preston for £25. I replaced the rusty old steel shafts with stainless steel and gave it a clean up, then used it for a number of years to carry my Equinox 120, for which it was ideal. Then after buying the FC100DC  I passed it onto Peter Drew at the Astronomy Centre, only to pick it up again a couple of weeks ago with the intention of double mounting my DZ and SDF side by side. My friend originally built this mount to carry a 8" Maksutov Cassegrain, but its struggling to handle the heavy 6" F10.  I think the ideal mount to suit this scope would be a Fullerscopes Mrk lV, which I'll probably put an ad out for when funds become available.

Phil did make a larger version of the Cygnus, designed for a 12" Maksutov Cassegrain and 6" F15 refractor. It was a massive beast. I'd love to find one of those!

Edited February 20, 2022 by mikeDnight

[Franklin]

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

The lens had been fit in reverse.

Lol. I bet @alythall is kicking him/herself!

Same thing happened to me a while back with an old Vixen SP102 that I picked up. Blurry images which were not expected as I've had a few 4" Vixen achros in the past and they're usually great scopes. I moved it on at a bargain price to @F15Rules and fair play to Dave for spotting that the lens was in the wrong way round. Chuckle 🤣.

Looks a bit of a beast Mike 👍.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Franklin

[mikeDnight]

16 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Lol. I bet @alythall is kicking him/herself!

Same thing happened to me a while back with an old Vixen SP102 that I picked up. Blurry images which were not expected as I've had a few 4" Vixen achros in the past and they're usually great scopes. I moved it on at a bargain price to @F15Rules and fair play to Dave for spotting that the lens was in the wrong way round. Chuckle 🤣.

Looks a bit of a beast Mike 👍.

It's definitely a beast!

I don't think alythal had much chance to use it, as he didn't expect it to be as massive as it is when he bought it, and didn't have a mount strong enough to carry it well. I genuinely believe it was sold to me in good faith, and he was happy for me to remove the lens to see if it was in backwards. Also, he was more than happy to refund the money, so he was a thoroughly nice chap throughout!

I'd imagine with a Vixen scope that a previous owner had been messing around, as some tend to do, and toppled the lens? It's hard to believe Vixen would send one out like that. 

[davidc135]

On 18/02/2022 at 16:36, spacegalaxy said:

Wow! There must be no false color! I always loved the olive green - yellow colour combination? I wonder how it performs on the moon?

It performed very well. That is until I decided to cement the lenses with Norlands 61 and put some disastrous wedge into the objective. Dichloromethane is recommended to separate lenses using this glue but is no longer available to individual customers in the UK. So I as well as the lens am stuck. Maybe there is an alternative.

David

[neil phillips]

On 17/02/2022 at 08:35, johninderby said:

Big Red my homebuilt 100mm f/13 refractor using Japanese Carton optics. A magical scope on the planets and has seen off some very good 100mm APOs. 

where did you get the optics from John ?

[johninderby]

Got them from Glen when he used to run Lyra Optics. The Carton optics are now unavailable but still much sought after.

[neil phillips]

40 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Got them from Glen when he used to run Lyra Optics. The Carton optics are now unavailable but still much sought after.

Oh ok. Yeah they have good reputation. Great build

[Rusted]

All me own work guv:
My 7" f/12 and 6" f/10. Mounted on my home made GEM built from scrap aluminium plate.
Galvanized steel, dust extractor ducting for the telescope tubes.
50mm stainless steel shafts in flange bearings. Multi-axis compression studding for stiffness.
Combination of shafts and disks for increased steadiness.
All housed in my entirely home made 3m/10' plywood dome on top of my entirely home made, two story observatory with 14' pier.

7" f/12, in folded form, on my home made mounting with temporary, top RA drive.
When I were a lad: 5" f/15 and 12" f/5 entirely home made including the optics. Mid 1980s.
The observatory in winter. Presently being enlarged for a 4.2m/ 14' Ø GRP dome.

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, Rusted said:

Amazing! Where did you get that invisibility cloak for the OTA?

😊

[F15Rules]

8 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I'd imagine with a Vixen scope that a previous owner had been messing around, as some tend to do, and toppled the lens? It's hard to believe Vixen would send one out like that. 

I think that's exactly right, Mike.

I can't take the credit for rectifying it though..although I thought the lens set was flipped, there were no alignment marks that I could see, so I decided to get an expert involved if I could: while reassembling the lenses, I managed to create 2 very small clamshells at the edge of the outer  lens!😱😱

Fortunately, I had booked my FS128 in for cleaning and service with Es Reid, and Es kindly agreed to look at the Vixen while he had the Tak. 

Es soon had the lens sorted, and described it as a good lens..the clamshells are totally invisible in use (they are very small) and the rest of the scope cleaned up well and is a great performer now👍

I added some new decals courtesy of Pete Gamby, and a pair of spare Tak focuser wheels. And I also added a new counterweight shaft and slo mos to the SP mount, and finally an old Unitron tripod who's legs I sanded and oiled..

Oh, and a nice SW 6x30 RACI finder😊

Dave

Note: shown here with old counterweight shaft before replacement..

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by F15Rules

[Saganite]

12 hours ago, JeremyS said:

This is going to be an  interesting story, Mike.

Glad you got the lens sorted out. First view and you must have thought your were looking through an SCT 🤣

What is the EQ mount? Looks intriguing 

Superb project Mike.

  I also saw the ad, and wondered what it would be like, so I look forward to your reports and observations with it.

[Saganite]

I have shown this scope on this forum before.  Not strictly homemade, but put together from various parts that I had accumulated, with a new paint job.

Tube ...............Skywatcher ED100

Focuser..........Single speed Skywatcher Achro I believe

Lens cell.........Skywatcher ED100

Lens.................Tal 4" F10

Lens cap........ very old sweet tin lid resprayed.

Because the tube is for F9 and the lens is f10, it is native binoviewing friendly..

 

[Astrobits]

Way back in the 90's I decided to try importing telescopes from GSO and ordered a small shipment as a trial, both for the product quality and company performance. The two 90mm achro's both had their objectives in the wrong way round and there were problems with the order which they seemed unable to grasp. I didn't order any more from them. I think they must be doing better these days.

Nigel

[spacegalaxy]

13 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Well its a work in progress, and so far I've had nothing to do with the build process, but it is technically a home build as far as I'm aware. 

On Friday last, I picked up a 150mm F10 achromat at a very reasonable price. It's a Heinz 57, made up of various bits and bobs from other scopes but its functional.

After getting the scope home I laid it on the kitchen table, aimed it through the double glazing at houses across town and thought it was very good. The main thing that amazed me was the high level of colour correction. It wasn't until darkness fell that things turned out to be not so good. Still on its kitchen table mount and looking through double glazing, I aimed the scope at the street lights at the other side of town only to see the worst spherical abberation I'd ever seen. The Ronchi lines were a strong barrel shape, while alongside the 150mm, and aimed through the same double glazed window, my Genesis SDF and FC100DZ  showed perfect street lights and perfectly straight ronchi lines. Later I was able to mount the scope in my observatory and take advantage of a clearing sky. Again the star images were surrounded by a destructive spherical blur that prevented any kind of true focus.

I remembered in Leslie Peltier's Starlight Nights, that Leslie had the same problem with a 12" Clarke refractor, so I re-read the relative paragraphs, then e-mailed Peter Drew for his expert opinion. It appeared the most likely cause was that the beautiful Edmunds lens had been installed into its cell facing backwards. It was getting late but I couldn't wait until morning. I struggled to remove the glue blobs holding the lens retaining ring in position but eventually the ring unscrewed freely. I carefully removed the lens group, and to my immediate relief saw the thicker edged flint was indeed  at the front. To reinforce my belief, I then noticed written in pencil on the lens edges the numbers 4,3,2,1. The lens had been fit in reverse. I cleaned the outer surfaces before refitting the lens back in its cell. The clouds had rolled in by now, so back to my trusty street light through double glazing test, and what a relief it was to see sharply defined street lights. I went to bed very happy!

Tonight, after 48hrs of first heavy snow, then torrential rain and high winds, the sky cleared briefly. I set the scope up in the observatory and aimed it at a bright star (several in fact). Wow is this a beautiful lens! The diffraction pattern at both sides of focus was identical, while in focus it was perfection at X333.

As I mentioned at the outset, this is now a work in progress, and now that I'm convinced of the high quality of the lens, I can now start working on it to turn it into something beautiful. Not certain how it will end up looking, but I'm hoping it's going to be a heart stopper.

Below is the Edmund's 150mm F10 achromat as it stands at present.

 

4 hours ago, Rusted said:

All me own work guv:
My 7" f/12 and 6" f/10. Mounted on my home made GEM built from scrap aluminium plate.
Galvanized steel, dust extractor ducting for the telescope tubes.
50mm stainless steel shafts in flange bearings. Multi-axis compression studding for stiffness.
Combination of shafts and disks for increased steadiness.
All housed in my entirely home made 3m/10' plywood dome on top of my entirely home made, two story observatory with 14' pier.

7" f/12, in folded form, on my home made mounting with temporary, top RA drive.
When I were a lad: 5" f/15 and 12" f/5 entirely home made including the optics. Mid 1980s.
The observatory in winter. Presently being enlarged for a 4.2m/ 14' Ø GRP dome.

 

53 minutes ago, Saganite said:

I have shown this scope on this forum before.  Not strictly homemade, but put together from various parts that I had accumulated, with a new paint job.

Tube ...............Skywatcher ED100

Focuser..........Single speed Skywatcher Achro I believe

Lens cell.........Skywatcher ED100

Lens.................Tal 4" F10

Lens cap........ very old sweet tin lid resprayed.

Because the tube is for F9 and the lens is f10, it is native binoviewing friendly..

 

These three scopes look amazing! I hope that I could build something like that one day especially @Saganite beautiful f/10, @Rusted folded Refractor and @mikeDnight 150mm scope! 

[Alan White]

Interesting thread.
Looking at all this scope building or rebuilding, has it been cloudy lately??

A more sensible post from me, is those scopes all look wonderful,
somehow I forsee a longer focal length refractor tempting me at some point,
perhaps sooner than I had truly considered.

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

 

Here is the mini-dob I built for the kids

and here the Newtonian I built as a kid

[mikeDnight]

On 21/02/2022 at 17:48, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

 

Here is the mini-dob I built for the kids

and here the Newtonian I built as a kid

That looks like a superb rooftop observing site Michael. Was it an unusually warm day? I notice there were no leaves on the trees. 

[Peter Drew]

My largest refractor so far.  8.5" F12.5, scope, mount and observatory all self built, apart from the optics.      🙂

[spacegalaxy]

3 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

My largest refractor so far.  8.5" F12.5, scope, mount and observatory all self built, apart from the optics.      🙂

Wow, that is a monster of refractors, I wonder what the rod in the front of the mount is and connected to the refractor is?

Edited February 23, 2022 by spacegalaxy