how would you build a large telescope?

Answer 1

The key ingredient to a large scope is the lens. You can buy a glass blank and then get ready for a lot of work sanding and grinding it down to a perfect lens shape. You would buy a kit and plan to spend many an evening working on your hobby. If you are talking about an observatory-type telescope, the latest technique is to put together a bunch of small lenses/mirrors and have a computer perfectly align them with each other. The Keck Telescope in Hawaii is one of the best single large mirror telescopes in the world and you can Google the information on it if you want to.

Answer 2

You can go about this two ways.

1. You can grind the mirror yourself.
2. You can buy the mirror.

We'll assume you buy the mirror because mirror griding is time consuming.

So to build a large telescope.

1. Decide what kind of telescope you want to build.

Do you want a....
Dobsonian? These are best if you want a super big telescope, like something larger than 10" in aperture. If so, do you want a truss tube dobsonian or enclosed tube dobsonian? Do you want it to do tracking? You'll have to build or buy an equatorial platform for it.

Newtonian? You will have to buy a german equatorial mount to mount it on but the good news is newtonians are easy to build and the mount allows easy tracking for astrophotography.

Schmidt Cassegrain? To build one of these you must buy a kit such that the mirror and corrector plate come pre-configured for eachother. People usually don't build these.

So after you decide what you want to build, you need to decide what type of specifications you want it to have. How big do you want it to be? Do you want a "fast" telescope or a "slow" telescope, meaning, what kind of focal ratio do you want the telescope to have? If you want to build a giant telescope you will probably have to make it "fast" as most larger mirrors only come with focal ratios of f/4.5. This will give you a wide field of view but less magnification per eyepiece than "slow" telescopes of the same aperture.

So after you decide all of this, you either buy plans for the type of telescope you want to build, or design the plans yourself following basic principals of telescopes and your specifications. You then buy the appropriate primary mirror, secondary mirror, mount, etc.

You can visit http://www.atmsite.org for more information.

Answer 3

Go to somewhere like Edmund Scientific & buy a kit.
You get two glass disks, grinding powders, & an eyepiece.

For over 50 years, Edmund Scientific has been proud to provide our customers with the latest and best selling, unique science-related items available. In addition to hundreds of great new products, Edmund Scientific remains true to the old favorites, like the famous astroscan telescope, a multitude of magnets, optics, lenses and lasers, as well as astronomy products and robotics.

Our goal at Edmund Scientific is to provide hobbyists and science enthusiasts with high quality products for every project. From microscopes and telescopes to metal detectors, night vision, birding supplies,weather instruments and more, Edmund Scientfic is sure to have something for everyone.

Answer 4

Truth be told....
The hard part is not the telescope, it's the mounting you need to track stars.
This is of course assuming you want this to watch the night sky and not to watch your neighbors.
Grinding and polishing the mirror is just a matter of lots of mindless labor.

Answer 5

large telescope building supplies, of course

Answer 6

in case you acquire the replicate, bypass forward. there's no longer something that perplexing between a 6" and a 13" different than the replicate griding, and while you at the instant are not doing that, concern solved. My first grew to become right into a 10". Piece of cake. likely the defining factor besides the replicate is the dimensions of the tube you will discover. 12" grew to become into the final i ought to do.

Answer 7

With a large tree, hammer, and nails? Why ask me, that is after my day? Hehhehhehe

Answer 8

no clue, but i'd check google, or wikipedia if i were you

Answer 9

ask jeeves about it.

Answer 10

by putting peices together lol idk