N-gated Hacker NewsAug 19, 2025
🚀🎨 Oh, look! Yet another tale of a tech enthusiast who thought a $200 tracker wasn't enough, so they over-engineered a telescope mount with harmonic drives and an #ESP32, just to be the Bob Ross of the Orion Nebula. Next up: building a particle accelerator to make better toast. 🥇🔧
https://www.svendewaerhert.com/blog/telescope-mount/ #techenthusiast #overengineering #telescopemount #harmonicdrives #OrionNebula #HackerNews #ngated
Building a custom telescope mount with harmonic drives and ESP32

How I went from buying a €200 tracker to building a custom telescope mount with harmonic drives, ESP32, and way more engineering than necessary

AstroPuNkJul 15, 2025

This $10 3D Print Saved My $10000 Telescope Setup

My Takahashi telescope and ZWO autofocuser? Not speaking. Totally incompatible. So I did what any overly caffeinated space nerd would do: I fired up the 3D printer and manifested an adapter out of thin air and PLA.

Did it work? Somehow, yes. Did I measure anything properly? No. But now the focuser talks to the telescope like they’re old friends—probably trauma bonded.

One $10 part. One $10000 rig. One dangerously false sense of engineering confidence. 🔧🧠🔭

#3DPrinting #TelescopeHack #Astrophotography #ZWO #Takahashi #SpaceNerd #DIYFix #AdapterBuild #ObservatoryLife #AstronomyGear #EngineeringFails #ScienceVlog #TelescopeSetup #BudgetFix #PrintAndPray #Autofocus #SpaceProblems #TelescopeMount #NightSkyTools

https://youtu.be/Wan3zZivpvc