Return to the Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews home page
Home / Articles / How to . . . / Amateur Telescope Making (ATM)


ATM: 10" f/7 Dob with Platform
[How To | 07/16/05 | by Gabriel Bustos
A long time ago somebody told me that it was possible to build a homemade telescope, an instrument that otherwise should be very expensive and difficult . . .

ATM: 12.5" Open-tubed Classical Cassegrain
[How To | 07/26/05 | by Michael Lockwood
The primary mirror refiguring was no different than a normal parabolic mirror, except that it had a hole in the center! The subdiameter lap that I made . . .

ATM: 14.5" f/7 Dob
[How To | 07/23/05 | by Jeff Hineline
To the normal features of a mirror cell, I have added two useful features. The first oversized collimation knobs. One of the frustrations that many astro. . .

ATM: 16" Ultra-compact Dob
[How To | 07/29/05 | by Craig Combes
I went with a Kineoptics HC-2 focuser, which is a very light, precision focuser with zero image shift. I do intend to use a binoviewer with. . .

ATM: 2 Scopes Using 3 Parallel Struts
[How To | 07/21/05 | by Albert Highe
2 dobs which use 3 parallel struts... Most composite panels can be cut with standard woodworking tools. In fact, I found them a joy to work with. For. . .

ATM: 8" Briefcase Dob
[How To | 07/15/05 | by Peter Pekurar
I started this project by first buying secondary mirror is 1.52 inches. the briefcase which would house and protect the scope. I chose an aluminum tool. . .

ATM: 8" f/6 Rotating Dob
[How To | 06/26/05 | by Jerry Loethen
The mechanics are simple, if not a bit heavy. The tube rests inside a box that has holes cut in it larger than the tube diameter. Furniture pads placed. . .

ATM: Boy Scout Ball Scope
[How To | 07/28/05 | by Rick Steiner
The prototype proved that a light-diffuser based ball telescope is feasible. But, is it scaleable to an 8 inch mirror, without the use of exotic materia. . .

ATM: Building a 10" dob from scratch
[How To | 07/18/05 | by Jeremy Schmit
With all the time spent on the grinding phase of the mirror, the opportunity for bad things to happen was immense. Initially Murphy's Law manifested. . .

ATM: Building a 28" Dob
[How To | 07/22/05 | by Howard Banich
Ever wonder what it takes to build a 28" dob? ... The observing shade consists of three parts - the turntable, the backstop and the shade itself. The rota. . .

ATM: Building a Dob and Refractor from Parts
[How To | 07/17/05 | by David Mart'nez
The OTA was built around a spare stainless steel stove pipe (shame on us, we still use wood for warming our bones...) to which, just by serendi. . .

ATM: Building a Hardwood Coopered Dob
[How To | 06/08/05 | by Nate Perkins
Weighing in at about 55 lbs, it is easily transportable for a quick look in the back yard or a night at the dark sky site. The scope uses relativel. . .

ATM: Building an 8" String Scope
[How To | 07/11/05 | by Ian Ogilvie
Conventional design mirror and rocker boxes would be used with an accessories drawer located in the base of the rocker box. The tube (less the. . .

ATM: Designing a Dual Scope Solar Rig
[How To | 06/07/05 | by Gary Strumolo
To begin the design I started in PowerPoint by taking photos of the scopes and mount and moving them around to judge what would be the best position. Since. . .

ATM: Eye of Newt
[How To | 05/25/05 | by Michael McAvoy
We began by ordering the optics from Orion, a 10" primary and a 2.1" minor axis secondary. The concrete-form-tube was ordered from our local building cent. . .

ATM: Jim's 8" Truss Dob
[Article | 05/18/05 | by Jim Mills
I designed this scope myself taking ideas from many different ATM telescopes that I found on the internet. I needed a scope that would fit in the trunk of . . .

ATM: Little Bear - 6" f/8 Travel Dob
[How To | 07/25/05 | by Martha Gay
As a girl growing up in the fifties, I'd not even been permitted to take shop, and my woodworking skills were somewhere between rudimentary and nonexis. . .

ATM: Little Dipper Telescope
[How To | 07/19/05 | by Mark Bracewell
I have limited tools nowadays, but it didn't seem like I would need anything very special to build something good. Well, nothing special but some cash.. . .

ATM: Multiple Small Scope Projects
[How To | 05/21/05 | by Berislav Bracun
I am aware that this little telescope will look completely funny and out of place against those 20" - 30" Dobsonians or RC-s with computer control that you. . .

ATM: My Classical Cassegrain
[User Review]  | 09/26/06 | by Jeff Beish
The first and last Classical Cassegrain telescope I made was a 12.5-inch f/4 – f/16 system that had a 3.5-inch secondary. . .

ATM: One Trip Dobsonian
[How To | 06/01/05 | by Jeff Albro
It all started with long hair. When I was 16 I had long, shaggy hair, and my mother *hated* it. She said she wanted me to cut it. I said I wanted to build . . .

ATM: Planetary Monorail Telescope
[How To | 06/21/05 | by Jim Forde
In thinking about just what a telescope optimized for planets needed to be I realized it needed to be more than just the longer f/ratio, small obstru. . .

ATM: Rebuilding a Tasco Reflector
[How To | 06/10/05 | by Michael Fortner
We can rebuild it, we have the technology.... I finally got my courage up and decided to disassemble the telescope and get the primary and secondary . . .

ATM: Recycling a Telescope
[How To | 07/20/05 | by John Jarosz
My intent was to build a scope that gets me back into the astronomy environment, is portable, high quality, and is a design that can be scaled up to . . .

ATM: Sam's 6" Dob
[How To | 07/14/05 | by Mike Moffatt
First of all this is the first scope I've ever built. Until finishing it and getting bit by the astronomy bug I rarely looked up and had certainly neve. . .

ATM: Small Truss Dob in a Box
[How To | 05/24/05 | by Brent Burton
As long as I could remember I had the need to take things apart and customize them. To make them faster, stronger, better. This held true when it came to m. . .

ATM: Sphere-O-Scope
[How To | 06/24/05 | by Craig Stark
Building a spherical scope all comes down to one thing – balance. If you do it right, the scope will move smoothly and let you work with all your eyepi. . .

ATM: Spherical Dob
[How To | 07/09/05 | by Adam Eckhardt
With the daunting task of trying to fabricate a sphere eliminated, I began to design my rectangularly challenged scope in earnest.... . .

Building a Schiefspiegler
[Article | 09/27/07 | by Bill Cheng
A Further Improved 4.25 Inch Unobstructed Oblique Reflector. . .

Cooling Fan for a 12" Dob
[Article | 04/15/08 | by Scott Tannehill
This describes my installation of a cooling and boundary-layer scrubbing fan on my Bintel 302 mm Dobsonian telescope. . .

DIY GOTO
[Article | 10/31/06 | by Gary McKenzie
Most amateurs these days seem to want a goto scope, and those of us who are into ccd imaging all lust after the AP 1200’s and the Paramounts of the worl. . .

How to ATM an Economical Focuser
[How To | 03/07/06 | by John Jarosz
I've been looking at helical focusers for a while now as I wanted to use one in the scope I'm designing. One that caught my eye is from a website . . .

My Homemade Refractor
[How To | 06/16/05 | by Yigal Herstein
The first thing I had to acquire were the lenses. This was not difficult. A friend sold Synta-like lenses off most Synta telescopes. That was a relativel. . .

Pollux: A Beginners ATM Project
[User Review]  | 06/29/05 | by Mike Boyer
In the past I was happy with an assortment of store bought telescopes and did most of my viewing with an 8" LX200 classic.. . .

Update on ATM 16" Ultra-compact Dob
[Article | 02/22/07 | by Craig Combes
Update on My 16" UltraCompact/Ultra-Light Dob. . .

Back to Top

Contact Us
CN Reports | Reviews | Articles | Forums | Classifieds | About Us
Copyright© 2004 Ad Libs Advertising.
Privacy Policy
  Search Cloudy Nights   
  Advanced Search
Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cloudy Nights Supporters

Astronomics
Telescopes  www.astronomics.com

NEAF 2010 - Cloudy Nights Sponsor