The tiniest yet real telescope I've built

Hello, author here ! Other interesting builds or projects going on in the french amateur telescope maker community :

  - Sunscan, by the STAROS team : a fully integrated open-source solar imaging kit : https://www.sunscan.net/fr  

  - Eric Royer's binocular 24" dobson : http://www.astrosurf.com/topic/124758-bino600/  

  - The Slim400 by Laurent Bourrasseau : https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/920950-the-slim400/  

  - Astrowl, an electronically enhanced astronomy kit : http://www.astrosurf.com/topic/151807-projet-astrowl-de-visuel-assist%C3%A9/  

  - The smallest, an open-source 6" portable dobson : http://www.astrosurf.com/topic/176898-un-dobson-150-f5-facile-%C3%A0-imprimer-et-assez-compact/

  - A dedicated astrophotography power supply : https://github.com/Antiath/Open-Power-Box-XXL

I always love the moment in blog posts like this, where the writer with their esoteric knowledge of the project will say something like "I almost considered reflaboring the exahenge, but of course it would be a ridiculous prospect for a project of this type". And then always, inevitably, there is the followup edit; "I reflabored the exahenge."

Too rarely in life are things made better than practical consideration would dictate, just because of dedication to the craft.

Very nice! But you won't beat this ;)

> Optical Engineer Rik ter Horst shows us how he makes very small telescopes (at home) which are intended for use in micro-satellites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxwhCmO90UQ

Excellent. I might have a go at this myself. Was there a particular AliExpress seller that you got the mirror from?

Nice!! I printed a very similar (but larger) telescope back in 2018 with similar results... I didn't research my mirrors well and ended up with bad ones. Plus, it wasn't very stable at that size. I'd imagine a smaller version would be much more stable... Thanks for sharing!!

https://yesteryearforever.xyz/ABSDBS

Roughly similar in size to the ones Newton made for the Royal Society as demonstration instruments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_reflector

Very nice and I might look for one of these mirror kits.

When did buying a mirror on Ali overtake grinding your own? I guess when Ali became Edmund scientific ie mirror grinding hasn't been a thing since I was in shorts (the 70s)

So cool! Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of one of those very old cameras with the bellows or accordion. I wish I could look through it myself to see what you see with it!

So what are these tiny portable ones? I always assumed they were digitally augmented or virtual even - is there a minimum size for it to be a "real" telescope?

What I got from this is:

If you want a working telescope for $small, buy a second hand one.

If you want to mess around with mirrors for hours on end then build one!

Very cool project! I always wanted a telescope as a kid but kind of forgot about that desire as an adult. Didn’t know you could build your own like this.

Very cool blog, not just post

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