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ATM - How I WENT MAD BUILDING MY OWN SCOPE
Latest Project news Stop Press! I've just been offered a 6" - F7 mirror and matching tube free of charge. This gives me the opportunity to build a scope for use this winter. I've managed to source a 2nd hand mirror cell and spider at a decent price. A mount and a focuser and I'll have a working scope. Should give me the chance to try out some design ideas in advance of the 10" mirror being ready next year.
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Introduction My name is Phil, its June 7th 2000 and I have decided to build my own scope. I have an old Celestron 5" SCT scope on a half decent motorised mount. However I am suffering from aperture fever and I want more, more, more!! After a lot of thought I decided that I would build my own scope from scratch, including making my own mirror. What suffering lies ahead? <grin> I live in Scotland, there are few choices when it comes to ATM suppliers in the UK, however Stephen Tokin's excellent UK ATM Supplier page is of great help. Having decided to become an ATMer, I decided that I should build everything (or as much as possible), I will not buy any commercial finders, spiders, focusers, mirrors or cells. In fact I thought it would be a real challenge to build this at minimal cost - without sacrificing quality. It will be interesting to see if I manage to stick to that and keep sane ;-) My intention is to keep a fairly accurate journal of all the work I do, including a breakdown of costs. This page isn't meant to be a complete guide to making your own scope, but perhaps you will find something of use here. The Project I have a busy work life and with our first baby on the way I will have a very busy home life so I know that this is going to be a long term project. In fact my goal is to manage first light around October/November 2001. Why then? Here in Scotland the sun sets very late in the evening/night, and in the height of the summer you never really get a totally black sky, October is a good month to expect black skies. I know that there is no way I'll finish this for October this year, so it has got to be October 2001. Whether right or wrong, I have opted to build a F6 - 10" Dobsonian. I considered going for a smaller mirror first, but I know that if I went for a 6" or even an 8" scope to start with, it wouldn't be long before I started dreaming of something bigger, I expect a 10" to last me a little longer. As a secondary project, I am also working on a simple barn door tracker, that's another story. The Sky I live in the south of Scotland near a small town called Biggar. My house is in a rural location with only two neighbouring houses. I have quite a bit of land around my house, and my main observing sites are placed such that the nearby houses are hidden. There is no artificial lights visible, and the horizon is free of light pollution from any town/cities. During the winter months, when the sun is down and the weather is clear, the sky is beautifully black. The milky way is very easy to observe with the naked eye. Its just a pity that the summer sky never really gets that dark. Can't have everything I suppose. My property is surrounded by a large number of very tall mature trees, so any objects close to the horizon can be obscured. Reference Material. My primary reference source was and still is the web. In the Links section you will find links to a number of excellent sites that provided my with valuable information. After reading hundreds of messages and web sites it became clear that I should also invest in a book or two, the two 'standard' texts that most seemed to recommend were "How to make a telescope" by Jean Texereau and "Build your own telescope" by Richard Berry. Although these can be bought from various retailers, in order to keep the cost to a minimum I bought them second hand from www.abebooks.com - they can source virtually any book for you. If you are interested in other ATM books then this reference site http://www.atmpage.com/reference.html has a list of other useful books. Costs:
Tools I have a fairly well stocked workshop/garage with a variety of tools. The only tool that I don't have is a router, although I'm hoping to borrow one if worst comes to worst I will buy one. I probably should have one in my garage anyway ;-) Materials This is not meant to be a commercial plug, but I have decided to buy my glass blank and grit from Beacon Hill in the UK, they have a variety of items available at a reasonable price. What I ordered - 250mm low expansion glass disk and a grit kit for a 10" mirror. Costs:
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