It's Been A While.... BUT!!

 It's been a while, but one of my early customers asked me to build him a telescope with his beautiful Coulter F5.6 optics he bought in the 70s. He helped out with some of the supplies, but his telescope looks and works great.

Enjoy Curtis

Dobstuff CLOSED, New Email.

 You may know that we closed the business on 12/31/2024. Our email address is different now:

densteele@gmail.com

Contact me any time. The phone # stays the same.

Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024, Hotel Paseo, Palm Desert, CA.

 

A 16" Truss Kit for Daniel...

For a truss telescope, the 16" 9-point non-flotation mirror
cell is complete and installed.

Daniel lives in Reston, Virginia.

 

Randall's 13.1" F4.5 Kit Completed...

 

Great assembly of our 13.1" kit. This one included optics, focuser
and all the other components and hardware to complete this 
beautiful telescope. Randall lives in Visalia, CA.

An 8" Mirror Cell for Emily...

For an 8" F3.9 primary. Emily lives in Garden Valley, Idaho.

 

Sun Funnel Part 2...

Not the greatest screen, a piece of 20# bond paper
but there are a good number of sunspots visible.

Yeah!! It works pretty darn good!!

 

A Sun Funnel Anyone???

A home-made sun projection using a "funnel" -- it works!!

Large 17.5"x5" funnel and tools.

I couldn't resist -- I had to make one.  This one installed
in my Mead3 2048 4" SCT telescope. Yet untested.

You want to build one? Click HERE..

 

Glenn'ps 12" Kit -- Completed....

 

Good morning Dennis. I completed my kit yesterday. I want to
thank you for helping make this a very enjoyable project.
 Your skill and craftsmanship are beyond awesome.
I did a quick test last night and official first light will be tonight
weather permitting. Best regards, Glenn

Glenn lives in Leeds, Alabama

A Rocker Box for Kidus' 16" Lightbridge Telescope...

Kidus lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

Stars and Telescopes at Sawmill Trail...

Sunset at Sawmill Trail. We thought the clouds "might"
disperse. It didn't get much better.

But, the fun part was the socializing and schmoozing.
We had about 5 telescopes and 30 people show
for the evening. Great fun.

Thanks Jeff for the photos.

 

A 6" F6 Rocker Box for Scott...

Scott and Tanja (her telescope) picks up
their rocker box, and Sky Commander system
on October 7, 2023.

Nice visit you two!! :)

 

Scott's rocker box completed, with Sky Commander V3.0 (9-22-23)

Scott, in Long Beach, wanted to raise the eyepiece
of his 6" F6 telescope to a more comfortable level.

And, so, the rocker box sides will do that!!

A Rocker Box "Kit" w/Altitude Bearings for an 8"...

A rocker box with altitude bearings for Mark
in Webster, New York

 

Randy and his 13.1" Kit...

Randy, from Visalia, CA. and his 13.1" kit with
optics.

Thanks for coming by. A great time talking telescopes
and visit.

 

A 12" and 13" Strut Kit...

Altitude bearings and rocker box sides for Glenn's 12" kit (L) 
and Randall's 13" kit.

Glenn's 12" strut kit underway. Note the pre-mounted hardware
for his spider, focuser and 9-point mirror cell.

Glenn lives in Leeds, Alabama.

 

A 13.1" Kit for Randall...

I've got a good start on Randall's 13.1' kit around a Coulter
mirror. The top ring, pictured here, sports a 3-vane curved-vane
spider by Destiny and a GSO 2-speed crayford focuser.

Randall lives in Visalis, CA.

 

Allen and his Telescopes...

Allen, from Friendswood, Texas and his 13.1" dobstuff strut telescope
and his Zhumell 12" in one of our customer rocker boxes.

GREAT PHOTO ALLEN, thanks.....

 

Allen's 12" Zhumell Rocker Box Competed.

 

Logan's 16" Telescope and a Rocker Box Kit.

Nice job with a custom color stain and assembly of our kit. Logan's
16" telescope fits just right. Note the Nexus. Locan lives in Australia.

 

Paul's 20" Dobstuff Telescope .. A Review

 

Paul's 20" dobstuff and his review of the telescope on Cloudy Nights:

I purchased the telescope in early 2022 as a retirement present to myself. I purchased the mirror from Hubble Optics, and the rest of the scope was custom built by Dennis at Dobstuff. My reason for getting a 20” f/3.3 was because it was the largest telescope that I could reasonably carry in my vehicle while also allowing me to observe without a ladder or step stool. I love the simplicity and ease of assembly of Dennis’ design.

How good is the Hubble Optics mirror?

Very good. My only caveat is that although the manufacturer claims that cooling fans are not needed due to the sandwich mirror design, I found that adding cooling fans significantly improved the views.

How well does a GSO coma corrector work at f/3.3?

Well. I was concerned that it would not work well at this fast focal ratio but I was pleasantly surprised that it does work well.

Is it a big improvement over my previous 14.25” telescope?

Yes! Objects are bigger and much brighter. It is a big improvement. Many more objects are visible as well.

What eyepieces do I use?

I love 100° eyepieces and they are all I use; a combination of Explore Scientific and APM. My lowest power 20mm eyepiece gives me a 5.5mm exit pupil which is perfect for my dark adapted eye and it gives me a 1.1° field of view. Then I go to 14, 9, and 7mm. Rarely do I ever go above that since the 7mm gives me 263X magnification.

Does it fit in my vehicle?

Yes, barely. I have a Honda CR-V and it barely fits in the rear. I use some rubber straps to hold the altitude bearings down during transport. Since the telescope is too heavy for me to lift by myself, the included wheelbarrow handles are a must and I use 7ft wheel chair ramps to load it.

Best Feature:

Digital Setting Circles (Nexus-II with Sky Safari Plus). These have really transformed my observing sessions as I can find and observe so many more objects in one night. I find that I don’t need a finder anymore. I just use my laser to find the alignment stars and calibrate the setting circles at the beginning of each observing session. I find objects that I want to look at using Sky Safari running on my iPad and then slew the telescope until the bullseye is on the target. The objects are almost always in the view on the first try!

Disadvantages:

With an f/3.3 scope, collimation is critical. As I move the telescope around the sky it does not keep perfect collimation. Usually I collimate at a 45° angle which is good enough for most deep sky objects from low to medium power. But when I want to use high power on a planet or the moon, I collimate right before at the location of the object in the sky. With my barlowed laser collimator, this only takes me about a minute to do.

In summary I am extremely happy with this telescope and wouldn’t have done anything differently if I had to do it all over again.