#telescopemaking — Public Fediverse posts

Spent a couple of hours trying to understand how to position 3 supports in a mirror cell optimally. #telescopemaking Didn't understand PLOP's suggestion, so I had Claude Code help me grind out a similar calculation in Python, and now I think I understand it much better. The basic idea is that variations at the edges are more harmful, so they should be minimized. I now reproduce PLOPs suggestions.
https://github.com/brainwagon/blip

I worked on roughly reproducing the 6" mirror cell from my first telescope as a 3D print, but as I work on it, I can't help but realize just how mediocre the design is. I think I'll start from scratch. #telescopemaking #3dprinting

First prototype of a diagonal holder/spider that can be easily/cheaply 3D printed. Vanes will be made out of 1/16" aluminum strip. My idea is to be able to supply these for a pittance to our telescope making workshop. I have at least three improvements to make before I give it to our first guinea pig. #telescopemaking

It's cloudy tonight, so I can't test this for real under the stars, but I have some data I acquired from a couple of nights ago. The tetra3 plate solver is really awesome and fast: so much so the other processing is the bottleneck. Stars are currently labeled with the Hipparcos ID numbers, but a little more work and I'll have more human names for them. Nifty. #astronomy #astrophotography #telescopemaking

Prototype computerized finder scope is more or less complete/functional, on a baby camera tripod. It has a 3D printed Vixen style dovetail, which should make it easy to mount on a telescope when I get it working better. If it is clear tonight, I am going to use it to grab some additional test frames tonight, and work on focusing. #3dprinting #telescopemaking

Prototype #astronomy / #telescopemaking project: a basic Raspberry Pi 5 based camera, with an IMX296 based camera and a 25mm lens. It can acquire images which can be used with a plate solver, and figure out what stars are visible in the field. The acquisition software is something I tinkered together, ultimately to use the astrometry.net plate solver (I think, unless I find something better).

For a couple of weeks, I've been wondering where my copy of Texereau was, and whether I even owned a copy of "The Dobsonian Telescope" by Kriege and Berry. Today, while looking for something else, I found both, and now they are with my other #telescopemaking books.

Pondering using 2020 aluminum extrusion for struts on my 12.5" telescope project. Might be cheaper than either 1" tubing or 1" box section, and probably easier to work with.
#telescopemaking

https://www.edmundoptics.eu/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/understanding-optical-specifications/

#Optics #TelescopeMaking #Astrodon 14673889 #Astronomy

Put together two more Ronchi testers today. If I am going to keep doing this and giving them away, I should figure out how to streamline assembly.
#telescopemaking

My 20 year old code for computing Ronchi patterns for telescopes was too old and crufty, and only wrote PGM files. New one is written in Python, pops up a window with the pattern, and also saves it to a .png file (or whatever you like the PIL supports). #telescopemaking

I dug out my 12.5" f/5 mirror that I stopped working on a decade ago. Using my 100 LPI grating, it looks to me like the mirror is reasonably smooth (the image is marred by a bit of thermal distortions in my garage) and if I read Mel Bartels Ronchi analyzer correct, it's probably about 1 wave undercorrected. #telescopemaking

This morning has a bit of a #telescopemaking theme: I got a first draft of a (better) Ronchi tester setup in my garage. https://brainwagon.surge.sh/blog/ronchi_tester/

Oh, the irony! A page about telescope making that can't even focus its own hypertext *lens* 🔭. Maybe #ModSecurity just couldn't handle the cosmic brilliance of amateur stargazers. 🌌🤦‍♂️
https://stellafane.org/tm/atm/ #telescopeMaking #irony #amateurAstronomy #cosmicBrilliance #HackerNews #ngated

Second mirror for the Hadley looks much better. #telescopemaking

I think I need to build one of these.
https://github.com/githubdoe/skysolve
#astrophotography #telescopemaking

Printed the parts for a Bath interferometer for testing telescopes. Don't have any of the optical parts, but should I return to more advanced telescope making, I will doubtless get this assembled to provide better evaluation of mirror accuracy.
#telescopemaking

Progress on my Hadley #3dprinting #telescopemaking project. I decided to tack together a simple Dobsonian rocker box out of some old particle board from a salvaged Ikea desk, just to test the dimensions and provide a stand for testing. The width could have been shrunk a tiny bit, but it's certainly serviceable. With a little luck this scope will be done by the end of February. Or at least, will see first light by then.

#telescopemaking question of the day: the Hadley has a 3 point cell but the 3 points seemed close to the center. I expected the support to be sqrt(2)/2 along the radius, but it's more like 41%. That seemed close to the center. PLOP (standard program) verifies the result, but intuitively it seems wrong. I'll have to ponder the reasoning some more.

#telescopemaking

@mythologyandhistory
Wondering if there are means to make magnifying lenses accurately other than by trial and error or with maths?
Any #LensMakers #TelescopeMaking #Opticians around here?

@mythologyandhistory
Wondering if there are means to make magnifying lenses accurately other than by trial and error or with maths?
Any #LensMakers #TelescopeMaking #Opticians around here?

@mythologyandhistory
Wondering if there are means to make magnifying lenses accurately other than by trial and error or with maths?
Any #LensMakers #TelescopeMaking #Opticians around here?

@mythologyandhistory
Wondering if there are means to make magnifying lenses accurately other than by trial and error or with maths?
Any #LensMakers #TelescopeMaking #Opticians around here?

@mythologyandhistory
Wondering if there are means to make magnifying lenses accurately other than by trial and error or with maths?
Any #LensMakers #TelescopeMaking #Opticians around here?