Space Town Hall #2 - DIY Telescope

The first 2 speakers of the Space Town Hall #2 (unveiled in earlier posts here and here) definitely has the galatic impact on their focus! Our third speaker will bring us back to Earth and take is through building telesope using 3D printing etc, the rapid designer-prototyper: Jon Rushton. 

Jon Rushton is a Brunel Industrial design graduate. Project Ultrascope is Jon's handy work! The main goal of this project is to increase the number of astronomers by the development of open source technology, reducing the barrier to entry for owning a telescope powerful enough for performing follow up observations on asteroids. 

"The scope we are building at the moment is not at this level (yet) but we are making progress on reducing the barrier to entry by releasing the free plans and instructions to download and build an ultrascope in the near future. The manufacture methods also reduce the skill required by the maker as it uses ever developing rapid manufacture techniques such as 3D printing and laser cutting for the bulk of the components (as well as bought in components). 

We believe that the unique points of interest for this project are the freedom to customise and improve on the design, access to an open community of maker astronomers (of which there is already a budding number) from a great starting point and its strong cross subject (science and Design & Technology) in school project applications.

The project so far has been a great success and we have 1,600 sign ups in the wings to build the scope when it is released."

Want to hear more or have a burning question to ask? RSVP now and join us on Space Town Hall #2, 10 Feb evening at Hub Westminister.