Some extra glamour shots!
This is a Newtonian telescope (amateur astronomers call it a "Dobsonian" after an amateur who popularized this design). That means it uses mirrors to reflect and focus light instead of transparent lenses.
And here's some playing with the mirrors! You can see the back of the bigger mirror in the first picture here: it's basically glass from this angle, and it's got a satisfying weight.
Looking down the barrel (from the star's PoV :^) ) some fun shots. You can sort of see how it works and bonus you can see my camera in the big mirror :) there's a smaller mirror suspended in front of the big mirror that I look into to actually see stars, eventually! (that's the thing being held in place by 3/4 bolts)
This is a Newtonian telescope (amateur astronomers call it a "Dobsonian" after an amateur who popularized this design). That means it uses mirrors to reflect and focus light instead of transparent lenses.
And here's some playing with the mirrors! You can see the back of the bigger mirror in the first picture here: it's basically glass from this angle, and it's got a satisfying weight.
Looking down the barrel (from the star's PoV :^) ) some fun shots. You can sort of see how it works and bonus you can see my camera in the big mirror :) there's a smaller mirror suspended in front of the big mirror that I look into to actually see stars, eventually! (that's the thing being held in place by 3/4 bolts)
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Have you noticed how CLEAR and SUNNY the skies have been the past few days? I have! I got the telescope set up and started calibration! ("Collimation")
I tested it out in daytime and was able to see individual railings and cars on this bridge, wowee
I tested it out in daytime and was able to see individual railings and cars on this bridge, wowee
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But does it work for space?
... Mostly :)
From testing, it seems my mirror set is a little "astigmatic" and has "edges that are slightly too low"
Just like my eyes! Awwww :3
These are some quick low-magnification pictures I took with my camera mounted onto the telescope.
The first is Jupiter (you can see its moons!)
The second is a star (Polaris I think) that is in focus but clearly looks a little misshapen
It's more apparent when I intentionally defocus the telescope in the third and fourth pictures ("star testing"). The third picture should look like a bullseye of concentric circles, but it's a little flattened and asymmetric.
The fourth one I include because it's cool that you can actually see a telescope part; you're basically seeing the shadow of the front end of my telescope, but it's a shadow from starlight many lightyears away! How cool :3
I'm going to order a new mirror set to fix the astigmatism :) but I've already gotten three nights of stargazing with friends!
... Mostly :)
From testing, it seems my mirror set is a little "astigmatic" and has "edges that are slightly too low"
Just like my eyes! Awwww :3
These are some quick low-magnification pictures I took with my camera mounted onto the telescope.
The first is Jupiter (you can see its moons!)
The second is a star (Polaris I think) that is in focus but clearly looks a little misshapen
It's more apparent when I intentionally defocus the telescope in the third and fourth pictures ("star testing"). The third picture should look like a bullseye of concentric circles, but it's a little flattened and asymmetric.
The fourth one I include because it's cool that you can actually see a telescope part; you're basically seeing the shadow of the front end of my telescope, but it's a shadow from starlight many lightyears away! How cool :3
I'm going to order a new mirror set to fix the astigmatism :) but I've already gotten three nights of stargazing with friends!
Quick little side quest: I finally put together this guide scope!
It's a tiny telescope that I put on the side of a telescope, that will let a mechanized star tracker know what star it's looking at!
Printing this involved some close tolerances and I actually finally calibrated my printer for printing small-tolerance holes for this! This is the first OpenAstroTech printing I've shown, which is astronomy stuff designed by (as far as I can tell) a bunch of Germans who have very specific design specs :^)
But I did final assembly during an online DnD game tonight! It's got a satisfying weight
It's a tiny telescope that I put on the side of a telescope, that will let a mechanized star tracker know what star it's looking at!
Printing this involved some close tolerances and I actually finally calibrated my printer for printing small-tolerance holes for this! This is the first OpenAstroTech printing I've shown, which is astronomy stuff designed by (as far as I can tell) a bunch of Germans who have very specific design specs :^)
But I did final assembly during an online DnD game tonight! It's got a satisfying weight
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put in the new mirror, looking much better! i took pictures of jupiter through a cloud so it's blurry, but i was able to see its red spot with my eye holy shit! i was fully just staring at my telescope and swearing for a few minutes because i was so excited :3
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Upgrades to the mount! Easier to rotate!
I printed a friction bearing that rides on a PTFE tube that is itself supported by a filament strand inside! PTFE apparently has very similar static to rolling friction, so there's little 'jerk' when starting to move. Also, it feels very smooth!
And the mount itself should be less wobbly, I added a stiffener from someone's design using the last of the EMT tube yay
I printed a friction bearing that rides on a PTFE tube that is itself supported by a filament strand inside! PTFE apparently has very similar static to rolling friction, so there's little 'jerk' when starting to move. Also, it feels very smooth!
And the mount itself should be less wobbly, I added a stiffener from someone's design using the last of the EMT tube yay
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Jupiter!
Last night was the first clear night in a while, so I sent my oncall handoff then went upstairs and looked around and it was beautiful! Moon was beautiful, I got to see Jupiter's moons and bands,
And then I took a bunch of pictures too! About 300 photos of Jupiter (and a bunch of calibration ones of my lens cap). I don't quite know how to best stack/combine them, but I ran them through this Dutch program called AutoStakkert! (the exclamation mark is part of the name) and got this :) my best picture of Jupiter so far! And one of its moons in the bottom right :)
I love this telescope :3
Last night was the first clear night in a while, so I sent my oncall handoff then went upstairs and looked around and it was beautiful! Moon was beautiful, I got to see Jupiter's moons and bands,
And then I took a bunch of pictures too! About 300 photos of Jupiter (and a bunch of calibration ones of my lens cap). I don't quite know how to best stack/combine them, but I ran them through this Dutch program called AutoStakkert! (the exclamation mark is part of the name) and got this :) my best picture of Jupiter so far! And one of its moons in the bottom right :)
I love this telescope :3
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