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Telescope v.1


On the first weekend in August 2004, I began building a 10-inch, truss tube Dobsonian telescope based on the plans published by Barry Leger. This project was a good bit easier than I expected it to be. If you found this page while researching whether or not to build your own telescope, I would urge you consider doing it. Do you save money? No, it costs about the same to assemble all of the parts and materials needed to build a scope as it does to buy a fair quality scope from a reputable dealer such as Orion or Meade. Is it rewarding and satisfying? Yes, and it is also a great way to learn exactly how a Newtonian reflector works.

References and Resources: Barry Leger's telescope site is no longer available, but I have a copy of his original article below along with some of the diagrams I drew up when designing the scope.


Photos:

                              

                              

                              


Refinements:

In 2006 I made a few small improvements on the scope
  • A new spider design (linked above in the references)
  • Springs virtual weight for the rocker to improve balance and motion
  • A tripod base to make the scope more comfortable to use standing up
  • A reflex (or red dot) finder to replace the over-sized, heavy optical finder
  • A solid plank in place of the back two struts to aid handling - I also put a clipboard on it to hold star chart printouts for quick reference
Photos of these refinements are available at this photo set.