The Cabinet Mount Telescope

A new type of telescope mount with some very user friendly features

I have a complete tutorial for how to make this whole telescope from start to finish including how to make the optical tube assembly and the cabinet mount.

It took me quite a while to finally come up with the cabinet mount. This is because I wanted to develop a new kind of mount that was easy to build yet was practical and made a lot of sense. This new mount I call the cabinet mount is born out of many hours of using many different types of telescopes both manufactured and home made.

Here’s more about it:

The vast majority of telescopes spend 99.9% of their time sitting in the house, basement or garage somewhere. And that’s what makes this telescope mount unique. It is a cabinet. It is made to roll away somewhere in the house. A nice little corner maybe. And it is made to hold all your various astronomy stuff including eyepieces, binoculars, astronomy magazines, photographic equipment and whatever else is used with the telescope.

So everything is right there in the cabinet. It is all together in one place with the telescope.

It is on locking wheels which makes it easy to move around yet very stable and secure when stored or when being used.

How the telescope moves

For the horizontal motion it uses a simple lazy susan bearing. This bearing cost 20 dollars and is rated at 300 pounds. Seeing as the telescope tube weighs only ten pounds the motion is extremely smooth and durable. It is also very easy to mount. The inner ring mount screws to the cabinet and the outer ring screws up to the cradle that the telescope rests in.

There are many types of lazy susan bearings that you can use. These are even less expensive but just as good.

The up and down function of the telescope is very easily achieved with some pvc parts. This is a friction fit and easily tightened or loosened to get perfect grip. The telescope tube is moved up and down with easy yet stays exactly where you leave it no matter what angle it is raised to.

These PVC parts are right off the shelf at Home Depot. Standard Plumbing parts.

And look at that. The telescope is in stored position and tucked away in a spot right near my grandfather clock. All the stuff is in it. Very neat and organized. No more tripping on tripods or putting away various parts into suitcases.

About this particular telescope. It is an F5 Newtonian reflector. On the new Cabinet Mount.

There’s more… scroll down the page.

I have a full tutorial on how to build this telescope including the mount and the red optical tube assembly on my other website here: How to Make a Cabinet Mount Telescope part 2: The Cabinet