Printonian - Printable Newtonian Telescope
Description
You too can enjoy the hobby of Astronomy! Stay up way later than your bedtime! Stand in the cold and dark! Collimation!
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Seriously it's actually pretty fun. Just don't expect anything as good as Hubble. As a mater of fact, you can see just about every heavenly body better just by looking it up on the internet.
But that's not what it's about at all. Looking at your computer monitor, you don't get that feeling of standing on a ball hurtling through space. And the unadulterated light from Jupiter, having traveled hundreds of millions of miles just to fall upon your retina, is like a draught of fresh mountain spring water. It's a very meditative, contemplative hobby.
Instructions
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonian_telescope
I'm not going to cover that here; there are many many resourses out there on the 'net. I'll put up some links soon to some good places to start soon.
Maybe someday soon somebody will put a printable equatorial mount up on Thingiverse, or an Arduino powered GoTo mod. Some telescope parts are absurdly expensive, and it's best to spend your money where it counts: the optics.
So spend your money on good, quality eyepieces and mirrors, and print everything else that's printable.
Links to parts:
thingiverse.com/thing:13476 - Focuser v2
thingiverse.com/thing:13215 - Spider
thingiverse.com/thing:13222 - Primary cell
thingiverse.com/thing:13302 - Truss tube
Other links:
astrojargon.net/MaskGen.aspx - This page spits out a Bahtinov focusing mask, in svg form, customized to your scope. (more info - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahtinov_mask)
stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm - This is a telescope calculator I found quickly. there are many out there, but this one has a lot of relevant info on one page. just plug in a couple variables and you get some valuable info, like the optimum magnification range.
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This is outstanding!
I just ordered a mirror set from the link you gave, and I'll be printing one of those (and most probably a mount/platform). What ocular(s) would you recommend? is the F8 too much for using a Barlow?
Thanks!
It's a very very subjective question, but say 2 Plossl and a 2x Barlow will start you off right. something long, like 30mm (15mm w barlow), and something a bit shorter, like 20mm (10 w barlow). You will easily spend more on your eyepieces than on the printonian.
I like cloudynights.com forums for discussing the pros/cons of each brand etc. ad nauseum. just beware "aperture fever"
http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
This thing might be usable as a tube. it would have to be printed in sections, and would need special sections for the primary, secondary, and fulcrum.
It would take a long time, though, and my problem with long, delicate prints like this is that a lot can happen between start and finish.
This is excellent. I built a Newtonian telescope a few years ago, and a equatorial platform for earlier this year. I now know it would have been a lot easier if I had a RepRap back then!
Tks for sharing your designs. There are some aspects of my equatorial platform that need rework and it will be 'printed parts' for sure this time. No more cutting/drilling or filing! Happy days! :)
This is a great idea. It'd be nice to make a parametric version for different sized secondaries.
I have a 114mm newtonian objective mirror kicking around here somewhere, I may just have to see if I can put it to use. I am waiting patiently for you to post an eyepiece holder print, that will get me just about set up! This is a really great direction for the 3d printers to move in, I'm stoked!
License
More from Buback
I'd like to print out a Bahtinov mask. Any suggestions on how I get from the SVG file to an STL file?