[mybbor]

Love this. Thanks for sharing. My friend and I pulled an old Dobsonian telescope of my Dad's from the garage when we were teenagers. We spent hours and hours out with it under the stars, and on cloudy nights I would read a book about telescope construction. Back then, cabinet makers were building the most impressive wood frames. Interesting to see how the technology has changed.

[dylan604]

> cabinet makers were building the most impressive wood frames

You say impressive, but my mind reads that as heavy even if they looked amazing

[mybbor]

Yeah! I meant impressive more in the “big sturdy woodwork” sense, not lightweight. They had to hold a heavy mirror and still move smoothly enough to aim by hand. The Dobsonian design, plus Teflon on Formica bearings, made big aperture amateur telescopes way more accessible to hobbyists. From what I gathered it was definitely a “bigger is better” kind of thing, and weight seemed pretty secondary.

[chantepierre]

We still do it ! But the designs have evolved, see : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWhxCwHVPms

I'm planning this kind of build for my 16". It's still a dob, still uses teflon against formica and a wood structure, but the ability to move it easily indeed became a desirable feature.