3D printed Newtonian Telescope - CAUTION, addictive content.

[TitusADuxass]

I foolish clicked on some YouTube posts about building/printing astronomical telescopes at not astronomical costs!

What a rabbit hole to fall into, I am hooked!!

I´ve already been buying stuff!!

I started here with the original https://www.printables.com/model/224383-astronomical-telescope-hadley-an-easy-assembly-hig

Then ended up here at a metric version (I stopped working in old money (inches) 20 odd years ago) - https://www.printables.com/model/268580-hadley-telescope-official-metric-remix

[PFarm]

 

Looks like an interesting project!

[atrushing]

I started down the same rabbit hole but I found the Dave Aldrich design first. He also started with the Hadley telescope but he had some spare carbon fiber tubes and came up with a different design for a 6" mirror. Of course, I had to modify his modification (back to a 4.5" mirror) but I've had to put that project aside for now.. I am using a 30mm carbon fiber tube for the structure and I created a collet style clamping system (in green).

[TitusADuxass]

@atrushing I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I've watched all of Dave's content. He's how I got started on the subject. I've always wanted a telescope, I was more than happy when I found a low cost printable one.

[atrushing]

The hard part for me is the tripod.. They need to be pretty strong to minimize wobble of the telescope but that means more cost. Also, I would prefer an equatorial mount but that costs more than alt-azimuth mounts.

[claudermilk]

Uh oh....  You're a troublemaker. 

My son is interested in telescopes, so this might be a project to do together if he shows interest.

[TitusADuxass]

I told you it was addictive.

[Penatr8tor]

Cool, Very similar to a Dobsonian Reflector.