An amateur astronomer from St. Petersburg printed himself a compact and powerful telescope

Alexey Cherenkov is an amateur astronomer from Saint Petersburg. Since early childhood, he liked to observe the objects of the Universe. First, he used cheaper telescopes to study the Moon, then - a more powerful equipment with auto aim. Nevertheless, the one bad thing about St. Petersburg is bad weather. Since often you can’t see the stars in the sky because of the clouds, you need to go someplace else, which is quite difficult with a large telescope. Alexey found a way out, he created a compact device with 3D printing.

The travel telescope is dismountable. Unlike mass produced or classic self made models, which are extremely heavy and sizeable, it can be compactly folded and easily transported from one place to another. The 3D printed device weighs no more than 5.5 kg.

Alexey designed the telescope parts himself in a 3D editor. Plastic parts were printed on the Anycubic i3 Mega 3D printer. After that, he assembled the model installing all the necessary optics.

As a result, the amateur astronomer got a functional telescope on a Newtonian reflector system with an 8-inch aperture, and a 203 mm diameter. Alt-azimuth Dobson mount completely kills all vibrations and withstands high pressure. 3D printing device is perfect for studying deep space objects on a country trip.

Alexey shared his printing files with all astrology fans and started a blog on 3Dtoday, where you can ask him questions about telescope construction.

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