Larissa's Telescope Project

My daughter Larissa (7), after studying astronomy at school in grade two, peaked my interest in things astronomical. After browsing the internet I stumbled across the Astronomy Daily web-site. One particular post on their forums entitled the "Dobsy Twins" by Joe Smith inspired me to build this telescope for Larissa.

I purchased a three inch f10 spherical mirror, a 17mm round mirror for the secondary, three eyepieces (25mm, 12.5mm and 6mm) and a moon filter from the Surplus Shed.

The paint job was inspired by Philip's (geppetto) post entitled "Farewell mini dob". The stars and moon etc. are painted with glow in the dark paint. Larissa chose the colour scheme and we spent an afternoon painting it.

We have only had a couple of nights viewing and were able to see Jupiter and its moons and Saturn without difficulty. It brought a smile to my face to hear Larissa say - "Daddy, you've really outdone yourself"!

Here are some pictures:

The finder-scope is an old .22lr rifle scope.

The solar system was painted to scale as best I could. After showing it to my daughter, she pointed out that Uranus should have a ring, so one was quickly added.

Hacksaw type spider.

Mirror cell with collumnating adjustment.

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