junk store telescopes - wait to you see this

[yusufcam]

i suppose this won't be news to many here but i got a bit of a kick out of it.

yesterday afternoon i noticed an old lens (about 4") from one of those dollar shop hand held magnifying glasses (it had fallen out years ago). And looking at the shape of it i thought man that looks a lot like a refractor objective.

so went out on the balcony grabbed a couple of eyepieces held it up at arms length and "hey presto" one functioning telescope.

the views were spectacular (why such a fuss over apo's :lol:)....

[yusufcam]

one thing i got out if it was the notion that building a telescope oneself, might not be nearly as difficult as you might think.

so that was a plus...

[jjjnettie]

:rofl: And why the hell not.
What are you waiting for? Get yourself some tubing and mount that sucker up.

[erick]

Not sure how to break this to you but I think a guy named Galileo already did this some years back? :question:

[yusufcam]

yes, it occurred to me at some point (which i no longer recall) how it might shape up in a retinal biff up with galileos scope...

[jjjnettie]

Hmmm, is now eyeing off her magnifying make up mirror............

[yusufcam]

sounds like you got one of them pocket reflectors, ready to go...

[ballaratdragons]

JJ. I tried the concave make-up mirror about 20 years ago.

Wow it was bad :lol:

Terrible scattered light due to being 2nd surface coated (aluminised on the back instead of the front), distorted image due to mirror not being perfectly concave, and would be worse over distance due to being spheroid instead of Parabolic.

But it cooled quick :rofl:

Colin, I also tried the 'Magnifying Glass' scope build too.
Apart from the poor quality of the optic itself it was a very nice richfield f4 :thumbsup: :lol:

[leon]

See Guys who needs a Takahashi, just a bit of 100mm polly pipe and away you go. :P :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[En1gma]

So, if I buy 3 of these 'dollar' objectives and tape them up with duct tape, would I achieve the quality of an equivalent 4" apochromatic? Will duct tape hold collimation?

If so, Im going to run out to the stores now. Bai...

[yusufcam]

yes, yes, why have a takahashi when you can have an array of 5000 of these in the backyard instead....

[Ric]

Hmm :question:

Imaging might be a bit tricky

[yusufcam]

as requested....

[DavidU]

That was quick !

[yusufcam]

the pieces were laying around the house, so took five mins to put together...

[Iceaxe]

Colin

It looks better constructed than some of the Chinese stuff, we pay an arm and a leg for.

Joe :rofl::rofl:

[jjjnettie]

:rofl:

When's first light?

[OICURMT]

I think we need to see an astro-image from it... just for grins.

[mr bruess]

very interesting creation from bits and pieces
save money by building your own telescope!!!!!

[ZeroID]

It's the 'Cardboard Carton Tube" special. Looks like one of my experimentals from out of the workshop. I'll take a pic of my Binoc lens Finder scope ( if I can find it !! )

So here is the challenge ... !!! :P

Make a working telescope from junk and post a pic ... if you dare. :D

Not allowed to spend more than $5, higher points if you spend nothing.

just for fun

[ausastronomer]

While Colins scope looks really pretty I don't know how well it's going to work. That scope he has built, looks to have a focal length of about 3 feet. Most 3" to 4" Magnifying glasses that I have seen have a focal length closer to 3" than 3'. It might look pretty but I think it might not have quite enough in travel in the focuser ;)

If it reaches focus the original magnifying glass was designed for someone who had a very high chair :)

Cheers,
John B

[ZeroID]

I thought it was all focusser ... :P

[yusufcam]

its the eyepiece that makes it work over 3ft as a telescope (its actually a bit less, the tube version in the picture wasn't functioning as i couldn't find the front lens at the time i put it together), but it would have worked.

without the eyepiece, its a magnifying glass with a focal length of about 8".

so the challenge in putting together a $5 dollar scope would probably be finding or making the eyepiece