Homemade Binoscopes

Abstract

When it comes to designing and building your own binoscope or binocular telescope, you generally start with several ideas in mind before you actually settle on one. Sometimes it takes a while to really decide which idea or design you want to go with. It becomes almost confusing sometimes when you look at recent astronomy magazine or book on telescope making and see so many excellent examples of homemade telescopes, Dobsonian or otherwise. Trying to decide which design, type, or style of telescope or binoscope you want to build really comes down to the amount of resources you have available plus the amount of spare time you can afford to spend building it. Resources as I like to call it can have two or three meanings: one is how much money are you able to invest in building it and the tools you have available that will be needed to build it with, and last but not least, how much desire and enthusiasm do you have to start and actually finish your telescope building project. All of these are important resources and you have to weigh each with an equal amount of importance before you start your telescope building project. Once you start your telescope or binoscope building project, you don’t want to stop its progress because of something you hadn’t planned for earlier. Once you have decided on a particular binoscope or binocular telescope design, then comes the fun part, getting started on it.