Has anyone made their own Dob Mount?

[DeejayP999]

I’m thinking of having a go at making my own Dob mount for my 150PL (one of my other hobbies is woodwork) – just to see how I like it vs the EQ mount.

I’m not worried about the practicalities of actually building it - but there seem to be a number of slightly different designs on the web and I wonder which is best.

Has anyone else got any experiences to share?

[NGC 1502]

I've made three Dob mounts. If it's your first one, I think it's best

to follow the conventional route. Later on, you may want to include

your own ideas, although it's highly likely that someone will have

done it that way before you.

Don't know if you have seen this :

Stellafane: Build a Dobsonian Telescope

Loads of ideas in that link.

Regards, Ed.

[Peter Drew]

Make sure the altitude trunnions are as large as practically possible, this makes for smoother action and better balancing. A reasonable rule of thumb would be, no less than the main mirror in diameter.

[JAO]

I would strongly recomend looking at:

The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kreige and Richard Berry

The Dobsonian Telescope, A Practical Manual for Building Large Aperture Telescopes by David Kriege and Richard Berry

If you don't want to buy it get it on an inter library loan from your local library. It is a mine of useful information and although aimed at large scope consrtuction chapter 13 sets out how to build a smaller scope.

[yeti monster]

Make sure the altitude trunnions are as large as practically possible, this makes for smoother action and better balancing. A reasonable rule of thumb would be, no less than the main mirror in diameter.

I'll second that! Mine are only about 1-1/2" diameter and a real PITA. I had to build in friction discs to compensate. I'll be upgrading them over the summer for 6". In the mean time the 10" SNT is now on a tracking mount. I've fitted dual dovetail bars to allow easy swap over from EQ to Dob mounting.

[swamp thing]

Hi

I found Richard Berry's "build your own telescope" useful.

Regards Steve