Hi. I am planning to restart stargazing, now that my son has also developed an interest in astronomy. I pulled out my 15 year old DIY 100mm f10 Newtonian, and it is still working fairly well. However my old alt-az mount is totally wrecked.
My tube is 110mm PVC, and my old mount had a DIY clamp that is also broken, so need the tripod + some way to mount the tube on the tripod.
Hoping some good forumers here would have something suitable to let go. Please PM.
WTB: Mount for DIY 100mm Newtonian f10
Hi mothbahi. Welcome to Singastro. Congrats on your restarting of this wonderful hobby. You and your son will have lots of wonderful bonding moments while stargazing together.
You may want to provide some photos so we can give some advice base on how the scope was DIY'ed.
What is the weight of the scope? This is a very important factor when considering what kind of mount and tripod to use with it.
How was the telescope mounted onto the az mount? Another possibility would be finding replacement for the broken parts. Again, some photos of this mount and the broken parts will be useful.
On a separate note, I am curious how your telescope has been kept for the past 15 years. How is the condition of the mirror now?
Did you DIY the scope yourself or someone else did it for you? In any case do share with use more about this scope in the DIY subforum or equipment subforum.
In the meantime, do look out for upcoming observation sessions, bring your scope and son along and have fun observing with us!
You may want to provide some photos so we can give some advice base on how the scope was DIY'ed.
What is the weight of the scope? This is a very important factor when considering what kind of mount and tripod to use with it.
How was the telescope mounted onto the az mount? Another possibility would be finding replacement for the broken parts. Again, some photos of this mount and the broken parts will be useful.
On a separate note, I am curious how your telescope has been kept for the past 15 years. How is the condition of the mirror now?
Did you DIY the scope yourself or someone else did it for you? In any case do share with use more about this scope in the DIY subforum or equipment subforum.
In the meantime, do look out for upcoming observation sessions, bring your scope and son along and have fun observing with us!
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
Hi & welcome to this forum
I don't think anyone here or anywhere ever owns a 4" f/10 newt, it's practically non-existent now.
You probably have to rebuild it based on the original design. Otherwise, just buy a new newt, as a 114mm f/4 starblast newt etc is cheap & more portable.
jest my two sense
I don't think anyone here or anywhere ever owns a 4" f/10 newt, it's practically non-existent now.
You probably have to rebuild it based on the original design. Otherwise, just buy a new newt, as a 114mm f/4 starblast newt etc is cheap & more portable.
jest my two sense
rlow
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orly_andico
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You guys are right on. I have never seen an f/10 in the market. And yes, it is a spherical primary. The mirror was home made by this guy who used to sell kits in Delhi, where my cousin bought it originally, and then passed on just the primary to me, and I built the rest of the scope around it.
rlow: My scope is fine - no need to rebuild it. Just need a tripod/mount.
Gary: good advice. I should have provided more details with some photos. Will do this weekend. The primary is in a relatively decent condition - given the age. I showed it to the very friendly guy at Astro Scientific at Science Center, and he said the mirror was good enough to continue using the scope.
I DIY'd the scope myself. I did not grind the primary - that I got as a pass-me-on. Rest everything I made - originally out of cardboard and aluminium sheets - even the focusing assembly, and made my own Plossal eyepieces, barlow, and finder scope - from individual lenses I got from a lab equipment supplies shop.
This served me well for several years. Then I found some matching parts - primary holder with wing nuts for collimating, an oval secondary (initial was rectangular!!), a focusing assembly, couple of eyepieces and a finder scope, and assembled them all around a PVC tube.
It was a terrific project - because of which I feel special about this scope :-) even though its so easy to buy much better equipment off the market, I want to give it a shot to make this one stand up and be useful again :-)
rlow: My scope is fine - no need to rebuild it. Just need a tripod/mount.
Gary: good advice. I should have provided more details with some photos. Will do this weekend. The primary is in a relatively decent condition - given the age. I showed it to the very friendly guy at Astro Scientific at Science Center, and he said the mirror was good enough to continue using the scope.
I DIY'd the scope myself. I did not grind the primary - that I got as a pass-me-on. Rest everything I made - originally out of cardboard and aluminium sheets - even the focusing assembly, and made my own Plossal eyepieces, barlow, and finder scope - from individual lenses I got from a lab equipment supplies shop.
This served me well for several years. Then I found some matching parts - primary holder with wing nuts for collimating, an oval secondary (initial was rectangular!!), a focusing assembly, couple of eyepieces and a finder scope, and assembled them all around a PVC tube.
It was a terrific project - because of which I feel special about this scope :-) even though its so easy to buy much better equipment off the market, I want to give it a shot to make this one stand up and be useful again :-)
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kochu
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- Favourite scope: Sharpstar-107PH Triplet.
- Location: Jurong West
F 10 newt
Hi mothbhai,
Since you have done so much yourself, I think you can make a mount too. If you want a design, I can pass an old Edmond Sc. Book to you which describes how to make a mount with some plumbIng materials.
Kochu
Since you have done so much yourself, I think you can make a mount too. If you want a design, I can pass an old Edmond Sc. Book to you which describes how to make a mount with some plumbIng materials.
Kochu
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cloud_cover
- Posts: 1170
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- Location: Restaurant At the End of the Universe
100mm means there are quite a few rings meant for 4" class refractors that probably will fit your OTA -
orly_andico
- Posts: 1616
- Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 11:14 pm
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mothbhai, what I meant was that you can rebuild the mount and tripod yourself. I have the design plans for a DIY alt-az mount and tripod suitable for your scope. You can make both using plywood, and it may probably be sturdier and smoother than the pipe joint idea. PM me if you want to discuss further. I am currently also working on a DIY project.
rlow
Wow - what a terrific bunch you are. Thanks for the excellent ideas and inputs.
First of all - as suggested, I have posted an item in the DIY section - with pics of the telescope, so you get a better idea of what I have.
http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php?p=67747#67747
I tried weighing it on my household weighing scale, it nudged the needle to between 2-3 KG. Not sure if the bathroom scales are accurate in that range, but its certainly not heavier than about 4 KGs.
I am open to DIY options for the mount, but not sure if I can pull off a complex project at this point :-) looking for a simple project, or a cheap purchase (which is why I posted in this section :-)
Orly - an equatorial would be great, but I would be OK with Alt-az too.
First of all - as suggested, I have posted an item in the DIY section - with pics of the telescope, so you get a better idea of what I have.
http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php?p=67747#67747
I tried weighing it on my household weighing scale, it nudged the needle to between 2-3 KG. Not sure if the bathroom scales are accurate in that range, but its certainly not heavier than about 4 KGs.
I am open to DIY options for the mount, but not sure if I can pull off a complex project at this point :-) looking for a simple project, or a cheap purchase (which is why I posted in this section :-)
Orly - an equatorial would be great, but I would be OK with Alt-az too.