Where can I buy loose lenses to build a homemade telescope?
Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at
12:27 am
I need specific diameters and focal lengths, and cannot find any resources on the internet.
Thank you
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US $1.00
Try Edmund Scientific or anyone on the ATM (amateur telescope maker) resource list that’s attached.
http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~blombard/
American Scientific: 4718 North Milwaukee, Chicago, IL. 773/283-6446
Consider a relecting telescope (Newtonian or other class of reflector), because mirrors are always cheaper than good lenses. You can get decent mirrors on E-bay all the time.
Edmund scientific does have lenses, but they also have a telescope kit. The kit costs less than the lenses alone! You can but the same kit from Edmund or Starlab.
People who need specific lenses with specific properties generally get them custom made by an optical firm that specializes in such work. Lenses made on a custom basis are surprisingly inexpensive—perhaps only twice as expensive as comparable lenses available pre-made in standard designs. Most large (greater than, say, 100 mm diameter) lenses used in science and industry are custom-made in optical shops.
Of course to order such a lens you must fully specify its properties: type of glass (from a standard glass catalog such as Schott or Ohara), front and back surface curvature, central thickness, and diameter, as well as allowable tolerances on these quantities, and quality of surface. Finer tolerances mean more money, perhaps a lot more money. Standard additions to a lens include glueing doublets or triplets, aspheric surfaces, grinding and blackening edges, and anti-reflection coatings.