A Darker View

For the last couple years I have been exploring 3D printed telescope designs. The latest result of this oddessy is Kinipōpō, a 4.5″ f/4 Newtonian using a entirely 3D printed ball mount design.

The Hawaiian word kinipōpō translates as ball or sphere.

A ball telescope offers a number of advantages, the first of which is ease of use. It is simplicity itself to aim at a target, no odd controls, no weird angles, just freely push the ‘scope to the target. As the tube can be freely spun the eyepiece can always be positioned for easy viewing.

The design is an RFT, or Rich Field Telescope. This type of ‘scope is designed to be a low power, wide field ‘scope ideal for enjoying sweeping the sky and providing views rich with innumerable stars. It is not a good ‘scope for planets, the magnification is far too low. It’s prey is large, bright targets, star clusters, bright nebulae, or even the dark nebulae silhouetted against the rich starfields of the Milky Way.

Another ideal target is bright comets. My prototype providing pleasing views of comet C/2022 E3 ZTF a month before preihelion and maximum brightness.

The short focal length does create coma issues around the edge of the field, stars near the edges of the field smear a bit and will not focus. The problem does not seem too objectionable, but it is there.

The design is inspired in part by the classic Edmunds Optics Astroscan telescope, in being both small, portable, and simplicity to use. On the other hand the design offers a number of improvments over the Astroscan. Primarily the ‘scope offers an increased aperture of 114mm compared to the Astroscan’s 105mm, while being very close to the same overall size.

The scope costs about $200 to assemble, the largest chunk of that being the primary mirror. While the needed plastic filament for the 3D printer is cheap, it does take quite a bit of time to print. The largest part, the spherical shell requires over 60 hours on the printer, with many of the other parts being overnight prints. Assembly is not difficult, mostly cleaning up the plastic prints, heat setting a number of brass threaded inserts, and a bit of epoxy here and there.

Three of these little telescopes have been built, and three have been given away. I get photos of them every now and then, fun little telescopes under a dark sky.