Building Your Own Newtonian Reflecting
Telescope Mirror
Astronomy seems at the outset to be something of only a viable
hobby if you have a telescope. This can stop a lot of people
from taking part in this hobby as the thought of shelling out
a fortune on a telescope seems frivolous. The truth is that
you can build your own Newtonian reflecting telescope mirror.
Building a telescope seems like a huge task but it is in fact
very easy to do and you can make one in a day. While making
your own reflecting telescope mirror may not give you the best
reflecting telescope it is a way to start your foray into astronomy
at home.
What You Need
Making your own reflecting telescope mirror can be very simple
and you will not need a PVC pipe to hold your parts together.
You will also not need a tripod to support your telescope. While
a tube and tripod seem essential to build a telescope you can
make a very simple one without all these things. All you need
are two lenses.
The first things you will need when making your own reflecting
telescope mirror are the lenses. You will need an objective
lens. This can be a lens that is used in a magnifying glass.
A simple guide to making your simple telescope more powerful
is to look for a weak magnifying glass.
The strength of the lens is inversely connected to the strength
of your telescope. The weaker the lens the stronger the telescope.
Look for a lens that is thin in the center of the lens, the
objective lens should always be a Convex lens. Look for a lens
that is large as well as weak to make your telescope more powerful.
Next you will need to find your eyepiece. If you are building
a Newtonian reflecting telescope mirror you will need to use
a convex eyepiece for your second lens. However using a convex
eyepiece will mean that everything you see through the eyepiece
will be upside down.
If you would like to turn everything the right way around then
you can use a concave lens for your eyepiece. When you use a
concave eyepiece for the eyepiece it is no longer a Newtonian
telescope but a Galilean telescope.
The best kind of eyepiece to use would be a small powerful
eyepiece such as a magnifying loupe. Now all you have to do
is hold the eyepiece right to your eye and close the other eye.
Hold the objective lens out in front of your eyepiece and you
now have a simple telescope.
