How to make a homemade telescope with your own hands - diagram and instructions. Making a monocle for photography with your own hands Do-it-yourself monocle from Helios 44m

Sometimes you find all sorts of rubbish in your bins. In dresser drawers in the country, in chests in the attic, among things under an old sofa. Here are grandma's glasses, here is a folding magnifying glass, here is a spoiled eye"" from front door, and here are a bunch of lenses from disassembled cameras and overhead projectors. It’s a shame to throw it away, and all this optics sits idle, just taking up space.
If you have the desire and time, then try to make a useful thing out of this trash, for example, telescope. Do you want to say that you’ve already tried it, but the formulas in the help books turned out to be painfully complicated? Let's try again, using simplified technology. And everything will work out for you.
Instead of guessing by eye what will happen, we will try to do everything further according to science. Lenses can be magnifying or minimizing. Let's divide all the available lenses into two piles. In one group there are magnifying ones, in the other group there are diminutive ones. The disassembled peephole from the door has both magnifying and minimizing lenses. Such small lenses. They will be useful to us too.
Now we will test all magnifying lenses. To do this, you need a long ruler and, of course, a piece of paper for notes. It would be nice if the sun was still shining outside the window. With the sun, the results would be more accurate, but a burning light bulb will do. We test lenses as follows:
-Measure the focal length of the magnifying lens. We place the lens between the sun and the piece of paper, and moving the piece of paper away from the lens or the lens away from the piece of paper, we find the smallest point of convergence of the rays. This will be the focus length. We measure it (focus) on all lenses in millimeters and write down the results, so that later we don’t have to worry about determining the suitability of the lens.
So that everything continues to be scientific, we remember a simple formula. If 1000 millimeters (one meter) is divided by the focal length of the lens in millimeters, we get the lens power in diopters. And if we know the diopters of the lenses (from an optics store), then dividing the meter by diopters we get the focal length. Diopters on lenses and magnifying glasses are indicated by a multiplication symbol immediately after the number. 7x; 5x; 2.5x; etc.
Such testing will not work with miniature lenses. But they are also designated in diopters and also have a focus according to diopters. But the focus will already be negative, but not at all imaginary, quite real, and we will now be convinced of this.
Let's take the longest focal length magnifying lens in our kit and combine it with the strongest reducing lens. The total focal length of both lenses will immediately decrease. Now let's try to look through both lenses assembled, diminutive to ourselves.
Now we slowly move the magnifying lens away from the diminutive lens, and in the end, perhaps, we will get a slightly enlarged image of objects outside the window.
The mandatory condition here must be the following. The focus of the diminutive (or negative) lens must be smaller than the magnifying (or positive) lens.
Let's introduce new concepts. The positive lens, also known as the front lens, is also called the objective lens, and the negative or rear lens, the one closer to the eye, is called the eyepiece. The power of the telescope is equal to the focal length of the lens divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. If the division results in a number greater than one, then the telescope will show something; if it is less than one, then you will not see anything through the telescope.
Instead of a negative lens, short-focus positive lenses can be used in eyepieces, but the image will already be inverted and the telescope will be slightly longer.
By the way, the length of the telescope is equal to the sum of the focal lengths of the lens and eyepiece. If the eyepiece is a positive lens, then the focus of the eyepiece is added to the focus of the lens. If the eyepiece is made of a negative lens, then plus to minus is equal to minus and from the focus of the lens, the focus of the eyepiece is already subtracted.
This means the basic concepts and formulas are as follows:
-Lens focal length and diopter.
-Magnification of the telescope (the focus of the lens is divided by the focus of the eyepiece).
-The length of the telescope (the sum of the focal points of the lens and eyepiece).
THAT'S THE COMPLEXITY!!!
Now a little more technology. Remember, probably, that telescopes are made folding, from two, three or more parts - elbows. These knees are made not only for convenience, but also for specific adjustment of the distance from the lens to the eyepiece. Therefore, the maximum length of the telescope is slightly greater than the sum of the foci, and the moving parts of the telescope allow you to adjust the distance between the lenses. Plus and minus to the theoretical pipe length.
The lens and eyepiece must be on the same (optical) axis. Therefore, there should be no looseness of the pipe elbows relative to each other.
The inner surface of the tubes must be painted matte (not shiny) black, or the inner surface of the tube can be covered with black (painted) paper.
It is desirable that the internal cavity of the telescope be sealed, then the pipe will not sweat inside.
And the last two tips:
-don’t get carried away with large magnifications.
-if you want to make a homemade telescope, then my explanations will probably not be enough for you, read special literature.
If you don’t understand what’s what in one book, take another, third, fourth, and in some book you will still get the answer to your question. If it happens that you don’t find the answer in books (or on the Internet), then Congratulations! You have reached a level where the answer is already expected from YOU.
I found a very interesting article on the Internet on the same topic:
http://herman12.narod.ru/Index.html
A good addition to my article is offered by the author from prozy.ru Kotovsky:
So that even such a small amount of work does not go to waste, we should not forget about the diameter of the lens, on which the exit pupil of the device depends, calculated as the diameter of the lens divided by the magnification of the tube.
For a telescope, the exit pupil can be about a millimeter. This means that from a lens with a diameter of 50 mm you can squeeze (by choosing a suitable eyepiece) 50x magnification. At higher magnification, the image will deteriorate due to diffraction and lose brightness.
For a “terrestrial” tube, the exit pupil must be at least 2.5 mm (better - larger. For military binoculars BI-8 - 4 mm). Those. for “terrestrial” use, you should not squeeze more than 15-20x magnification from a 50 mm lens. Otherwise, the picture will darken and blur.
It follows from this that lenses with a diameter of less than 20 mm are not suitable for the lens. Perhaps 2-3x magnification is enough for you.
In general, a lens made from spectacle lenses is not comme il faut: meniscus distortions due to convex-concave. There must be a duplex lens, or even a triplex if it is short-focus. Good lens You just can’t find it among the trash. Perhaps there’s a “photo gun” lens lying around (super!), a ship’s collimator or an artillery rangefinder :)
About eyepieces. For a Galilean tube (an eyepiece with a diverging lens), you should use a diaphragm (a circle with a hole) with a diameter equal to the calculated size of the exit pupil. Otherwise, when the pupil moves away from the optical axis, there will be severe distortion. For a Kepler tube (converging eyepiece, the image is inverted), single-lens eyepieces produce large distortions. You need at least a two-lens Huygens or Ramsden eyepiece. Better prepared - from a microscope. As a last resort, you can use a camera lens (don't forget to fully open the blade aperture!)
About the quality of lenses. Everything from the door peepholes goes into the trash! From the remaining ones, select lenses with anti-reflective coating (characteristic purple reflection). The absence of clearing is allowed on surfaces facing outward (toward the eye and the object of observation). The best lenses are from optical instruments: film cameras, microscopes, binoculars, photo enlargers, slide projectors - at worst. Don’t rush to disassemble finished eyepieces and objectives made from several lenses! It is better to use it entirely - everything is selected in the best possible way.
And further. At high magnifications (>20) it is difficult to do without a tripod. The picture is dancing - you can’t make out anything.
You should not try to make the pipe shorter. The longer the focal length of the lens (more precisely, its ratio to the diameter), the lower the requirements for the quality of all optics. This is why in the old days telescopes were much longer than modern binoculars.

I made the best homemade trumpet this way: a long time ago in Salavat I bought a cheap children's toy - a plastic spyglass (Galileo). She had 5x magnification. But she had a duplex lens with a diameter of almost 50 mm! (Apparently, substandard from the defense industry).
Much later, I purchased an inexpensive Chinese 8x monocular with a 21mm lens. There is a powerful eyepiece and a compact wrapping system on prisms with a “roof”.
I "crossed" them! I removed the eyepiece from the toy and the lens from the monocular. Folded, stapled. The inside of the toy was previously covered with black velvet paper. Got a powerful 20x compact pipe of high quality.

Monocle– a lens with only one lens. The lens is necessarily concave-convex, often called a meniscus. On the one hand, a monocle could not be simpler, but on the other hand, it is a very difficult device to understand and operate.

This review presents two monocles, one converted from a Helios-44 lens, and the other from a Helios-44m-4 lens. Both monocles are very similar. The best thing monocles from converted Helios behave at apertures 4.0-8.0, I almost always use them at 5.6 and forget about the aperture control ring. It's funny, but if you close the aperture to 16.0, the lens turns into a rather dark, but sharp lens.

Aperture on a monocle from a Helios-44m-4 lens

Monocle It is best to do it from a lens with a large . The larger the lens, the more interesting the drawing will be. I came across bright ideas that the diaphragm of a monocle should be ring-shaped. Well, even if not ring-shaped, then at least placed in front of the lens, and not behind it (as in a regular lens).

Advantages:

1. Just unique drawing. And no editor can replicate the airiness and volume of the picture. If you take a few successful shots with a monocle, you can fall in love with it for life.
2. Cheap to manufacture. You can make a monocle yourself. How to do this is not difficult to find on the Internet. Usually, simple monocles, like mine, are made from inexpensive high-aperture fixed lenses like the same Helios-81n, Helios-44m-X.
3. The lens turns out to be very light and you don’t need to worry about its integrity at all, even if it breaks, you can always make another one.

Flaws:

1. Spherical and chromatic aberrations, distortion, drop in contrast. But in skillful hands, these disadvantages turn into advantages, the main thing is the right approach. Even in backlight you can get interesting photo for landscape.
2. Difficulty focusing. Not for the faint of heart. After switching from autofocus zoom to a monocle, your head may ache a little from trying to get into sharpness.
3. Like another manual lens, on most Nikon DSLR DX cameras The exposure meter will not work. More details on how to work with manual optics on Nikon system in the article - . How to work on a Canon system in the article
4. It's almost impossible to make a monocle with zoom

Regarding working with a monocle

When you close the aperture, not only the depth of field changes, but also the focus point itself. The usual method of aiming in the open and taking a photo in the covered position is not suitable. Therefore, you need to focus on the aperture at which you plan to shoot. To make focusing easier on film cameras, it is advisable to use special focusing screens. On digital SLR cameras, without additional tools, only a keen eye, sometimes Live View, will help. But even Live View helps very little and focusing is a bit difficult.

Regarding the picture on the monocle

The picture is really unusual, in fact, people use a monocle just for the sake of the picture. The monocle has strong spherical aberrations (blurness between contrasting elements in the image). And these aberrations serve well for creating interesting photographs. The monocle is especially valued for creating portraits with interesting effects. Also for still life and landscape – where the monocle can show its fabulous design.

Distortion is most visible at the edges of the frame, so placing objects in the center of the photo can be a good way to focus attention on it. In general, pictures printed on A4 look very good from a monocle.

Monocle excellent conveys volume. In a portrait, you can forget about skin defects and begin to focus your attention on the character of the person being portrayed. The softness and airiness of the monocle is very important for a facial portrait. Maybe spherical aberrations eat up sharpness, but a monocle gives the contours of the image, which is very, very important in photography.

The most interesting

And the most interesting thing is that in post-processing it is impossible to repeat the monocle pattern. So if someone asks you whether it would be easier to just Photoshop a photo, tell him that the design of a monocle cannot be faked. At the same time, the monocle is in demand among professionals, but the lens as such is not produced. That is, it’s not so easy to find a monocle on sale; it’s much easier to order one made from a working lens or just buy an already made one. If you are looking for a monocle, then please note that there is monocle lens, but there is just a monocle (like binoculars, only for one eye).

When remaking Helios-44 and Helios-44m-4, the focusing distance scale no longer works, and the lens itself turns from 58mm into something like a 70mm short telephoto. To be able to focus normally, you need to attach a pair of extension rings to the lens. I use a monocle from Helios-44 with the help of an adapter KP-42\N. A lens with such a ring focuses perfectly at infinity, which cannot be achieved with the KP-42\N without a lens with a conventional lens.

Examples of photographs taken with a monocle. All photos are without processing, only reduced in size and printed. You can imagine what will happen to the photographs if you also apply the simplest processing to them, such as converting the photo to shades of gray, sepia, etc.

IN school years I, along with my friend Slavka Belyaev, hung out for hours watching the stars. And the hour came when my mother bought me a “Tourist-3” telescope. This is a miracle! Thank you mom! We started hanging out even more. Many, many years passed, and I accidentally found the remains of this pipe in my parents’ house (curiosity forced me to take everything apart). I took this pipe in my hands and went nuts! She smelled so much that all these pleasant memories fell on me. Amazing childhood memories!

Somehow I went astray. In short, recently chance brought me to a flea market, and I became the proud owner of a monocular MP2 8x30. The monocular itself can be used for some outings into nature. For example, on rafting it will be useful for inspecting obstacles. This shabby device looks like this:

But the main thing in this device for me was the eyepiece. You can use it to make a telescope. Here is the eyepiece separately:

To attach it to existing scoop lenses, it was necessary to make an adapter. The main task was to make a universal thread adapter M42. For this purpose, a rear lens cap with such a thread was used. After jerking off a little, I cut a neat hole for the eyepiece:

To maintain the versatility of the eyepiece, it must be screwed in. How to do threaded connection at home? After thinking, I chose an option that cannot be considered high quality, but can easily be implemented on my knees. I took epoxy plastic glue and stuck it around the eyepiece. The result was a part that was an inversion of the landing eyepiece. It looks inconspicuous, but the main thing about it is the carving and the plane perpendicular to the carving:

This homemade part was glued to the lens cap with superglue. Along the way, it turned out that superglue (cyanoacrylate) dissolves epoxy resin. But in the end everything worked out as planned. Below is a photo of the lens cap with an epoxy glued part and a screwed-in eyepiece.

And now the best part! We screw the structure to a cool lens and get a telescope. I once came across an old lens from Zenit at a sale 3M-5A-MS and bought it. This mirror lens Maksutov systems:

The magnification of the telescope is slightly more than sixty, which makes it, given its aperture and the absence of chromatic oberations (the eyepiece still provides a little of them), a very good instrument. On a tripod it looks like this:

Well, if this is not enough, then you can use a more advanced lens - MS MTO-11SA. With it, the magnification is 125. The stripes on Jupiter are clearly visible, and the Pleiades are divided into hundreds of stars.

But with such optics you already need a cool tripod with a tracking mechanism, which costs 20 thousand rubles. By the way, using a lens 3M-5A-MS In August 2008, I photographed a total solar eclipse.

A monocle is a lens consisting of only one lens - a meniscus. We have already talked about this briefly in the “A minute about photography” section. Today I will try to explain how you can make a monocle with your own hands and what you need to pay attention to during the assembly process.

Initially, the monocle was made from improvised materials - for example, a sheet of cardboard rolled into a tube and glass for glasses were excellent for these purposes. A sheet of paper, which was located directly in front of the lens, served as a diaphragm.

Such designs, as a rule, were difficult to create, fragile and unreliable in operation, and had a lot of shortcomings - for example, it was extremely difficult to guess with a diaphragm. Therefore, over time, completely different designs took root - these are single-lens lenses that were created on the basis of industrial, mass-produced samples. Naturally, for such barbaric treatment of optics it is worth choosing old, inexpensive lenses.

Video:

Our “Jupiter 37A” with a focal length of 135 mm and F3.5 belongs precisely to the echo of the Soviet era. When starting to create, it is worth remembering that after alterations the focal length does not change. Therefore, you need to initially decide what you want to shoot.

First of all, you should prepare workplace. In the process, we will need a soft rag, several sheets of paper or newspaper, a small flat-head screwdriver and patience for an hour. By the way, you shouldn’t disdain advice regarding the lens - the fact is that the inside of the lens is abundantly greased, and I doubt that you will be very happy when you wipe off the working area.

After all the preparations, you can start working. The advantage of “Jupiter” over the same “Helios” is the bayonet mount Nikon type, so there will be no additional crutches.

First we start disassembling the rear part of the lens. Unscrew the three small bolts and remove the bayonet ring. After this we gain access to the back.

It is worth noting that there are two metal strips attached to four small bolts. It’s worth unscrewing them anyway and sending the metal plates for scrap. This will be needed to make focusing easier later. I'll explain in more detail a little later.

Now we need to unscrew the rear lens unit. To do this, you need to remove the fixation ring. At this stage it’s worth taking a closer look - there are two of them. The one with a larger diameter is responsible for fastening the diaphragm, is twisted very tightly and plays an important role for us - it prevents the petals from falling apart. A little lower is a small ring that is located directly above the lens. We can easily move it with a screwdriver and unscrew it counterclockwise. After this, remove the rear lens.

Here it is worth remembering one very thing important point– if you scratch the lens with a screwdriver due to sloppy work, it’s okay. But if you put a deep scratch (yes, right down to the white metal) on the inside of the case, this threatens the appearance of sunbeams. Therefore, if you notice such an oversight, do not be lazy and hold the scratch over a candle - the soot will simply blacken the flaw.

After we have removed the single lens from the tail section, we can replace the bayonet mount and move on to the front side. Here you may encounter some minor difficulties.

The thing is that the ring with the inscriptions, which blocks access inside, does not have any grooves, and in addition to this, some copies are tightened “for centuries”. It is also worth remembering that we have before us the anterior hemimeniscus, which cannot be scratched.

In my case, I simply pressed the screwdriver into the slot of the letter and carefully moved the ring. After that, he continued the manipulations.

Immediately behind the “branded” ring there is another one – a fixing one. True, it has a slot for a screwdriver, so removing it is not difficult. Immediately behind it is the half-meniscus, which is what we need - carefully remove the lens and put it aside.

We are approaching the assembly stage.

We wipe the front lens with a rag, turn it over so that the concave part faces outward, and install it in the body. We fasten it with a fixing ring - and the monocle can be considered ready. True, I also decided to screw on the branded ring, but, in fact, this does not play any role at all - it is enough to make sure that the clamp holds the lens correctly, evenly and motionlessly.

The monocle is assembled. But you can't use it yet.

The reason is simple - when we manipulated the lenses, we changed the distance of the lens groups to the matrix, so focusing will simply not be adequate. In order for everything to go well, you just need to add a few extension rings - we talked about them here. The selection of the required distance is carried out “by eye” - as a rule, it takes from one to three centimeters, depending on what focal length the lens has.

But now is the time to remember the strips that we unscrewed at the very beginning. Their primary task is to fix the front part of the lens, including when closing the aperture. I deliberately removed the lock, I got more flexible system focusing.

Having set the macro ring to 1 cm and having obtained excellent focusing from 1.2 m (as stated in the technical specifications of the lens itself), I can slightly unscrew the front part of my monocle with my hands, thereby moving the only lens away from the plane of the matrix - and, according to physics, I am able to focus on closer objects. True, now, when changing the aperture, I need to hold the front of the lens with one hand, but I don’t suffer from this at all.

It is believed that there is no point in shooting using a monocle. You just have to buy a soft filter for the lens, or do it easier, install glass smeared with Vaseline in front of it.

But experience shows that the resulting image in this case will have a completely different character. Important difference The problem is that all of the above methods do not allow achieving contour sharpness, which is necessary for a clear perception of the image, while a monocle is characterized by the fact that the border between light and dark is always visible, even despite the halo.

An attempt to imitate the image obtained from a monocle using a diffuser while printing a photograph will also be unsuccessful. The monocle pattern is unique...

But don’t despair, because it’s quite possible to make a monocle with the help of improvised means. So, I bring to your attention simplest option this optical device.

Component materials:

• Spectacle glass, which can be purchased at optics, with a diameter of 50 mm, +9.5 diopters.
• Cardboard sheet, for example from baby set for labor.
• Extension ring used in macro photography, with M42 thread (for example, for Zenit or Praktika).
• Plastic hood for some domestic lens model
• PVA and Moment glue, black gouache, possibly tape.

The main element of the monocle, on which 90% of the visual qualities depend, is the lens, the task of which is to project the image onto the plane of the film, thereby creating spherical aberrations so dear to our hearts.

Any lens of suitable focal length will be useful.

The most commonly used monocles are those with a focal length of 50-100mm, but it all depends on your genre of photography. As a rule, 50-80mm is used for landscapes, 80-100mm for portraits, 300-500mm for sports reporting, and 500-1000mm for peeping at other people’s windows.

First of all, my gaze fell on the thick magnifying glass with which I examine negatives, but since a magnifying glass is a necessary thing in the household, I took pity on it and headed to the nearest Optics store in order to find myself the most powerful positive spectacle glass. There, I was quite happy with the +9.5 diopter lens (the focal length of the future lens is calculated according to the formula 1/9.5 = 105 mm), since the 105 mm focus in my case was what I needed.

Now is the time to think about the type of attachment of the future monocle to the camera. I came to the conclusion that M42 thread would work best. If you are not satisfied with this thread, try using special adapters that are provided for almost all types of mounts.

Without hesitation, I used one of the extension rings for macro photography. For the body of the monocle, I used the most practical material - a thin cardboard sheet from a children's set.

Since we need to focus the monocle, the body must consist of two cylindrical parts inserted into one another. It is necessary to think carefully about the length of the cylinders, because if they turn out to be too long, then the monocle will not be able to adjust well to infinity.

However, cardboard can always be easily trimmed with scissors. In my experiment, the length of the cylinders was 35 mm. The diameter of the first is selected so that it fits onto the extension ring with force, and the second so that it moves freely along the first. Moment glue or similar analogues are suitable for gluing. As a result, we get something like a piston zoom.

I covered the entire inner surface of the case with black gouache mixed with a small amount of PVA glue, so that the paint would not crumble over time.

The final design task is to attach the spectacle lens to the monocle body. At this stage, you can try any available option, the main thing is that the lens is installed parallel to the film plane. I found a use for an old lens hood from a domestic lens because I liked how my 50mm lens fit tightly in it.

Having taped the lens hood to the monocle body, I secured the lens, and to prevent it from falling forward, I clamped it with an improvised cardboard diaphragm. I glued the diaphragm to the lens hood with tape.

A couple of thoughts on calculating the aperture. It is required in order to correct the degree of blur in the frame image. Maximum sharpness is obtained when there is no aperture, while the smaller the aperture, the better quality pictures, and less aperture of yours optical system. I made a 37mm aperture from cardboard, and this is focal length my spectacle lens gave a relative aperture of 2.8 (105/37 = 2.8). In the future, it is advisable to have, just in case, similar apertures for relative apertures: 3.5, 4, 5.6 and 8. I think there is no need to remind you that the aperture should be black.