Thanks to some epic solar flares and the resulting auroras last month, the annual time for me to procrastinate by downloading the NASA Astronaut Application came a little early this year. If the requisite 1,000 hours piloting a jet and/or relevant PhD isn’t exactly your jam, you might try exploring the universe through one of these spectacular homemade telescopes.
This award-winning, Newtonian-Dobsonian telescope design was built by Ken Slater for the 75th Stellafane convention and is now open-sourced on the Stellafane website. The site features endless design variations and how-to’s as well as links to all your additional telescopic needs. Ken made his telescope (pictured above) for around $200 with most materials found at Home Depot, although you can also get fancy like the one pictured below if that’s more of what you’re about.
It’s a hearty project to be sure, but it’d definitely look good on that astronaut application…
Click here to view the complete instructions: Build a Dobsonian Telescope
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