Fully* Printed Newtonian Telescope

The purpose of this project is to create a low-cost, easy to build, yet high quality starter telescope suitable for beginners, which can be extended with accessories and improvements for more advanced stargazing.

The goal is to lower the barrier to entry as much as possible, without sacrificing image quality.

Telescope mirrors are available from eBay, AliExpress, and Amazon for as low as $30-$40, and almost all the rest can be printed, except for the eyepieces, cameras, and parts of the mount.

Lowering the barrier to entry is viewed not just in terms of cost, but also in minimizing the effort in sourcing materials and assembling.  A parametric design can accommodate many mirror sizes, but depending on the size of mirror that is available (and inexpensive), it may be difficult to purchase a tube of suitable size.  Printing the tube is relatively low-cost, and removes the constraint on finding an existing appropriate tube.  A fully* printed design is not a goal per se, but rather it is a consequence of designing to maximize availability.

Full assembly instructions are available in the included PDF.

STL files are provided for a printed tube and parts to accommodate a mirror with 114 mm diameter and 900 mm focal length, or an 80 mm diameter mirror with 800 mm focal length can use 4 inch PVC (double check inside and outside diameter).  Other sizes, (for either printed tubes or purchased tubes) can be generated using the OpenSCAD customizer.

The source is being published with a permissive license, and the files are also on GitHub here, in case anyone wants to offer suggestions in the form of a PR.

Update: added “Micro Dobsonian” mount which is an altitude/azimuth mount that can be built using printed parts and no woodworking (except for drilling pilot holes for screws).  It does require a board and an object with a flat top to prop it up.

A short clip of the basic operation is viewable here.  It is by no means perfect, but it is a huge upgrade from a camera tripod, and it is extremely easy to construct.

Update 8/3: fixed bug in core_parts.scad where large secondary mirror could cause the spider to fail.