Frodo - a 10 inch travel Dobson

10 inch, f/4.8 newtonian

Telescope Making
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features!

numbers

basic considerations

optics
hogging out
smoothing the curve
polishing
foucault tester
figuring
silvering

mechanics
mirror cell
wire spider
focuser
middle ring
rocker box

travel and assembly

performance

acknowledgements

rocker box

The rocker box was a bit tricky as I did want it to be collapsible also. As the rest of the scope was a mixture of aluminium and wooden parts, I felt like sticking to this theme and used 30 mm aluminium tubing at the corners that connect to the 18 mm plywood ground board through M8 socket screws. This is already quite rigid and further strengthened by the attached boards that make up the altitude bearings and eyepiece holder.

rocker box with azimuth bearings upside down

The ground triangle is equipped with the three Teflon azimuth bearings as well as three roller skate bearings to keep the ground board in place

ground triangle with roller skate bearing