The wood would cost the same, as would pretty much everything except the mirror, so why not spend a little more on the mirror and go BIG. I had the thought that as long as I was going to build it I should build it as big as I could afford. Yet I was also becoming infected with aperture fever. A 10 inch scope would not be very much longer or heavier than my 6 inch, yet it would allow me to see much more. Many sources point out that 10 inches is a kind of sweet spot in the balance between power and portability. For a while I decided that 10 inch would be the best size. Once I decided to build a scope myself I had to decide on the aperture of the scope. But by this time I had thought about building my own scope for several weeks, and getting one off the shelf seemed pretty boring by comparison! It would cost less and they have a very good reputation. When I looked at the costs, I seriously considered buying an Orion telescope instead of building my own. I also wanted to buy the other mechanical parts-mirror cell, spider, secondary holder, and focuser-so that the performance of these pieces was not limited by my skills. But I wanted a larger mirror, and, at that size, grinding my own was not an option. This might have been tempting if I wanted to build a 6 inch scope-at that size, they say that first-timers do pretty well at grinding and figuring their own optics. I found out pretty quickly that building my own telescope would only be a bargain if I made my own mirror and mechanical parts. This is the first telescope that I have built This Instructable describe the planning, design, and parts of the scope, as well as the process of building The scope. I began building it in the spring of 2008, but the bulk of the work was done in July of 2008 with first light occurring on July 25. How to build a 12.5 inch closed tube Dobsonian telescope.
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