Litchfield Hills Amateur Astronomy Club

PiKon Telescope – DIY, 3D printed, Raspberry Pi enabled

This neat project from Royal Astronomical Society member Mark Wrigley showcases what can be done with new low cost disruptive technologies like 3D printing and single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi. Costing only ~$312 as a fully built kit or much less if you have some of the parts and tools needed. This is among one of the cheapest imaging ready telescopes out there, allowing you to take photos of the nearby planets and moon to share with friends, as well as some brighter deep sky targets if your mount is good enough. As enthusiastic amateurs with closets full of high tech expensive equipment it’s easy to forget where we started off and how we can get more people interested in looking up at the night sky without having to break the bank. While not the “best” telescope on the market it is a very reasonable start and a fun project for father and son (or even the whole family) to tackle over a weekend, teaching the principles of optics, engineering, computer science, craftsmanship and of course astronomy.

For more info and design files check out Mark’s blog or Instructable.