Making a Dob

[smoggy]

I am currently undertaking teacher training and I am in a school placement at the moment and I got talking to some kids about my degree (Physics with Astrophysics). They were more keen to hear about the astrophysics bit and the observing side to it and were wondering if they too could get involved in an astro society.

I of course said yes but then the science teacher I am shadowing asked if I knew how to make a scope. I said not really but I have seen some instructions on how to build a Dob online and it is something I was going to try out in the future.

So I was just hoping if anyone who has came accross any particularly clear instructions on how to build one as well as what the typical costs are for making them (it will be out of the school funds). The costs broken down roughly would be fab too!

Also, what was the timescale involved? The kids would probably lose interest after about 30 hours of work on it but I will probably prepare all the pieces ready for assmbly in my own time.

If you think this might be out of reach of 14 years olds then please say.

Thanks in advance

[pvaz]

There is a book fully dedicated to it, called "The Dobsonian Telescope": The Dobsonian Telescope: A Practical Manual for Building Large Aperture Telescopes: Amazon.co.uk: David Kriege, Richard Berry: Books

I been reading it as I was studying my options to make a large dob. However I soon found the cost of standard quality mirrors for a home built scope is about the same, or more expensive, then buying a mass production dob, also with standard optics, from one of the Chinese companies. And then you'll still be lacking some items, as a finderscope or a focuser, which will make the cost go up fast.

I would recommend to buy one instead. It will be much cheaper and if you want you can then build a dob and move some of the items to the new one (optics, focuser, maybe the mirror cell as well).

Here is a list of quality cheap dobs:

Dobsonians

Maybe there's a cheaper way to build a dob. Please wait for some more replies before making your mind.

[smoggy]

Much appreciated. I had a feling the price would rack up but I kept reading it was cheaper. I was struggling to see how. Thanks for the links, I'll spend the next 30 minutes pondering before bed.