I have always wanted a planetary telescope but then again there’s the problem with money, so I decided to make a perfect planetary scope by myself and this is how I did it.
First you need an old scope or a set of mirrors, in this case I used an old scope that I got from a member of our astronomy club.
For me who are more into constructing and repairing it was with an acing heart that I started to dismantle the old scope.
Then I started constructing the new scope by cutting a tube for casting concrete into the appropriate length (in this case I did not know the exact distant between the mirrors because what I was building was not a Newton telescope) in this case a calculated guess had to do.
after cutting the tube I reinforced it wit a ring in front and painted it with a epoxy resin to make it durable light and water-resistant (the same material that I used on the dome) followed by 2 layers of ordinary white 2 cop car paint.
After cutting and preparing the tube I looked to the rear and the mirror cell holder, the old was a very heavy casted part so I decided to replace it with a light weight copy. As i am improving my scopes I always try to keep down the weight on the components involved because a lightweight scope can be mounted together as a duo.
The mirror cell holder was turned in my lathe and a flan was made to accommodate the edge of the tube to ensure a perpendicular fit.
I then drilled out 3 holes in the back of it to allow air to pass trough the scope to cool it down faster.
Then I painted it black.
After the paint was dry I mounted the mirror cell.
So after the mirror holder was completed I put it away and turned to the secondary mirror holder, as his was going to be a classic Cass grain with Nesmith focus it had to have two spider holders, one for the secondary and one for the tertiary mirror.
So making both at the same time seemed as a good idea.
I decided to make all details from scratch and begun with the holder cell.
This vas made of a very durable polyurethane plastic that I turned in my lathe (see photo