DIY Telescope Kit

My Senior Design project was aimed at creating a Do-It-Yourself Telescope Kit for Kids. The goal was to create an engaging and educational experience where kids have the opportunity to assemble and align a telescope all by themselves with the aid of educational instructions, lessons, and activities. This is a STEM-Outreach focused product and is intended to teach children fundamental optical, mechanical, and electrical concepts while leading them through an interesting building experience. Our primary deliverable for the project was to produce a functioning prototype and image planets using vision and sensor based methods.

I had the pleasure of working with Dan Guzi and Madi Turner to turn the idea of our customers Igor Faleichik and Makan Camara into a reality. A special thanks to our advisors James Zavislan and Victor Genberg for their help throughout the process. An additional thank you to Wayne Knox, the Institute of Optics, Edward Herger, Jennifer Kruschwitz, James Alkins, Mike Pomerantz, Julie Bentley, and many others for their diverse help concerning the technical aspect of the project and providing us with the facilities and workspace where this telescope was built.

Please feel free to take a look at our UR Design Day Page for more information or take a look at some of our documentation below: