Suggestions for a Home-Built Telescope

hodet asks: "I would like to know if anyone here has built or are planning to build their own telescope. My plan right now is to build an 8" F/6 Dobsonion Reflector based on these plans. The same design can also be found here. The base has been cut and the primary and secondary mirrors are to be ordered shortly. Since I plan on making a few modifications to this design I'd like to know if anyone here has done anything similar or totally original and what thoughts and suggestions you may have. I know it may be cheaper and easier to buy one from Meade, but that's not what I'm looking for."

Comments

Make vs. Buy

[DynaSoar]

I've made a 6" reflector, and I've bought one. You don't make a telescope to have a telescope, you make it to make it. It's the process that's important. The fact that you end up with a telescope is almost secondary. It's sort of a spiritual thing, when you spend hours and hours grinding, and consider those who've done the same over the centuries.

Re:Make vs. Buy

[Glonoinha]

24 comments and nobody has offered up a way to overclock this thing yet? Heck, the only reason I read it was to get a grasp of just how bad /. was going to crank this guy's handle : simple ways to create a 48" parabolic back mirror, ways to create a 48" diameter tube for that mirror, maybe someone would come up with a four bounce set of mirrors set up between two houses as a way to use even larger mirrors or a longer focal length or a wider field of view ...

Surely somebody is going to figure out a way to turn a kiddy-pool into a 84" reflector for one of these things ...