My amateur telescope making page

The "Deep Space Scope" Design

Mirror box back
Mirror box and back plate of the mirror box. Left picture bottom is towards bearings, right picture top is towards the bearings.

The mirror box is made from 7 pieces of plywood.

2 pieces of plywood 15 1/2" X 15 1/2", glued together. Mark the center. Use the router circle cutter to cut a 13" circle through this 1" material. This gives us about 1/2" of air flow around the primary mirror for cooling. Go slow, and don't burn your router bits. This is the top.
1 piece of plywood 15 1/2" X 15 1/2". This is the bottom.
2 pieces of plywood 15 1/2" X 2 1/2". Two sides.
2 pieces of plywood 14 1/2" X 2 1/2". Two sides.
If necessary, trim up the sides to be the same size using the sander.
If necessary, trim up the top and bottom to be the same size with the sander.
Glue the sides to the top.
Screw the bottom to the sides. I used 8 1" screws, countersunk.

Details of the steps to design and build this scope are in the following pages:

Telescope design using NEWT (new July 2005)
Mirror cell design using PLOP (new July 2005)
Mirror box construction
Mirror cell construction
Secondary cage construction
Finish the mirror box
Truss construction
Bearing construction and mounting
Rocker box construction
Final assembly, current issues and future enhancements
Baffling (new June 2005)
Sources and supplies