How can I make a simple astronomical telescope?

Answer 1

This is not an easy thing to do. One problem is finding the parts. The suggestion about Edmund Scientific was a great one 50 years ago, but they haven't sold stuff like this for decades! The $9 kit suggested is probably the best and cheapest solution; making a real relescope is difficult and requires a lot of specialized skills. It is also more expensive than buying one ready made, given the high quality inexpensive telescopes being made in China nowadays.

The only really good telescope kits are those from Stargazer Steve. A friend built one of Steve's kits and found it interesting, and ended up with a really fine telescope.

Answer 2

The easiest easy way is to buy the $9 kit. Not a great telescope, but a simple one.

Answer 3

I realize that you said "Make." However, the key to a good working telescope is two lenses that are ground and polished to a very fine degree which is above the capability of most normal, average people. That does not say it cannot be done, it just takes a long time and a lot of patience, more than most people are willing to invest. Few if any people can make the eye pieces themselves.

It would be far better to rebuild a broken or deffective "used" telescope.

If you go onto EBay dot com, and search for eyepieces, you will eventually find one seller called Telescope Warehouse. That seller has all kinds of really inexpensive eyepieces and if you look closely, they also have some decent "cheap" telescopes. Decent and Cheap do not usually go together when talking about optics, But, by decent I mean "non-plastic" and workable. By cheap i mean less than $100 or $200. Of course, you only get what you pay for. When looking, shoot for a telescope that has the largest objective lens (refractor) or mirror that you can afford. Also, you want to get one that has the longest focal length that you can get. Mine, for example has a focal length of 1219mm with a 6 Inch Objective Lens. There are all kinds of special glass materials used for lenses and special coatings that add to the optical quality of a chunk of glass for telescope usage. All of these special qualities and processes add to the cost of the hunk of glass that is to become your prize posession. So you need to spend a bit of time learning about those to understand what you are getting and where it ranks in the available array of possibilities.

I suggest that you join a local Astronomy Club near you and learn about the different kinds of telescopes and what makes them work, what is good, and what is acceptable to you and within your budget. Maybe you will meet someone who can make a deal with you for their old telescope, or one that their kids used really cheap. That is the way to get started. Once out there trying to use a telescope you will learn all about the sky and the Universe. Possibly your interest will be peaked and convince you to invest more time and money...maybe not.

Before you get the idea that you can build a reflector telescope really cheap...

Eyepieces may be had for about $20 each (cheapos that work). You will need between four and five to get a good working unit going, regardless of which kind of scope you decide to go with. Good eyepieces cost anywhere from $140 to $300 each. A handy assortment which will give your telescope a good workout might be:
30mm , 21mm, 16mm, 12mm, 5mm and a 2X Barlow plus a Moon Filter.

Tripods are rather costly if you go to a big scope, unless you go for the Dobsinian Mount which you could build yourself. This type of mount is usually used with a reflector type scope. About the smallest reflector scope you want to look for is around 4 1/2 inches in mirror size, although there are some really neat high class reflector scopes out there that are a bit smaller. The ones I am thinking about are about $1000.
When you get bigger than an 8 Inch Mirror in a reflector telescope, you are talking about something that becomes fairly heavy and hard or difficult to move around easily. The tube might be 3 or 4 or 5 feet long and more than 8 inches in diameter. So, you cannot toss it onto the back of a bicycle and go out star gazing. What I am saying is you must judge what your needs and capabilities are, as well as your total budget situation. Also, when you look at something, are you getting the entire "system" or just a part of it? My scope was $500 and the Go-To mount cost me $700. I have invested about $200 in inexpensive eyepieces and plan to get better ones as time goes along...maybe about $1200 for a good set of Baader Planetariums, or Televue Radians.

Visit AstroMart dot com to see some parts and some fairly good telescope offers which might suit your needs. You will occasionally find scopes in there that need repairs and might be able to get one of those quite cheap if you are willing to search for someone to help with the repairs, etc.

Hope you have success in your search...
cheers,
Zah

Answer 4

The easiest way would be to buy a kit.

Look up ATM kits. ATM stands for amateur telescope maker.

Answer 5

buy as many lens as you can and overlap them together and then put all of them in a tube and then look at the night sky