Advice on building a telescope

Fair comment Philip.

Shane asked this:
"Is it better to have a long thin telescope or a wide short one?"

Shane is at the bottom rung of that long learning curve!
I thought perhaps he should know a little bit more about telescopes before trying to build one.

Anyway Shane, good luck with the project!

it shouldnt be too difficult to build myn own amatuer star gazing reflector telescope.

You are wrong.
With your knowledge of optics I would strongly advise you not to attempt to build your own as yet.
You will end up with a lousy telescope.
And hopping mad with frustration.
Guaranteed.
Buy yourserlf a good bargain telescope.
Such as:
www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Bresser_...onian_Telescope.html

Familiarise yourself thoroughly with the optics and their usage.
THEN, MAYBE, you should attempt your own build.

No dis-respect to Shanedara but I have to agree with Petermark.

Philip, I don't think you realise what a special case you are. You have the brains of a rocket scientist or engineer and the manual skills of a master tradesman with a workshop equipped with the tools of a carpenter, metalworker and glass maker!! :lol:

I have learned through experience that there are many things the I would be well capable of doing. I would try and do them because hey, I'll learn a lot along the way, I'll save a packet by doing it myself etc. Always ended up in frustration because it turned out I had neither the time required nor probably the patience in the end. Always wished I had paid over the readies for someone else to do a better job for me.

Put it this way, of all the beginners that have posted in this forum that they wanted to get a telescope to see Saturns rings and should they buy a dob or a refractor, did you ever see anyone suggest, "Hey build your own dob mate!"

Don't think so.

Personally I think you would be me mad to build your very first scope. Buy one and then when you have learned all about collimation and optics and decided whether astronomy even meets your expectations etc then you can decide whether it is worth the time, effort and expense of building your own. If astronomy is for you then you can kill two birds with one stone. 1. Take pleasure in knowing you built your own scope thats better than most premade scopes and 2. Cure your own inevitable apeture fever by building yourself a monster 16in truss Dob!! :lol:

Thanks for all the advice. Its really just an idea at the moment and I dont declare to know all the answers to how Im going to do anything yet. But I will learn that as the time goes by. I feel the best way to learn these things is with a hands on approach and by discussing it here I am learning more and more about it.

Is the best way to learn about collumation by buying one off the shelf? I wouldnt have thought so.

Hi there,

a chap called eugene burke is on this forum built his own dob contact him he tell you eveything you need to know hes in my club aswell

www.deiseastronomy.com/

im shure he would give you good advice

Thanks very much tony

Is the best way to learn about collumation by buying one off the shelf? I wouldnt have thought so.

You got it in one!

Any help or pointers you need - just ask.

Phil.