Telescope & Astronomy Parts
Most of a telescope is not optics. It is the tube furniture around them — the shield that keeps the dew off the corrector, the focuser knob that fell into the grass in the dark, the adapter between a camera and a thread nobody has sold for years. That is printable. The glass is not.
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Get a telescope & astronomy parts estimate
Upload your file or describe the part. We review printability before confirming anything.
Common uses
- Dew shields and light shrouds for refractors, SCTs and truss Dobsonians
- Bahtinov and Hartmann masks sized to your aperture
- Replacement focuser knobs, coarse and fine
- Non-load-bearing eyepiece, filter and camera spacers and adapters
- Finder shoes, bases and eyepiece trays
- Enclosures for low-voltage dew heater controllers and cabling
No optics, and be careful what you print near the focuser
We cannot make lenses or mirrors, and we will not try. An optical surface lives in fractions of a wavelength; an FDM part is stacked extrusions, matte and rough by orders of magnitude more than that. No objectives, no correctors, no diagonal mirrors, no eyepiece elements — those are ground and polished by people with metrology, and a printed one is not a poor version of a mirror, it is not a mirror. The second thing is more subtle and catches more people: printed threads on a focuser are a bad idea. A plastic M48 or T2 thread carrying a camera on the end of an extended drawtube galls, wears looser every time you screw it on, and a slack thread tilts the sensor — which shows up as stars smeared into one corner of every frame and hours lost working out why. Where a thread carries weight or defines an optical alignment, use the metal adapter and let the printed part do the light-blocking and the spacing. Same reasoning for a dovetail bar: that is the part holding a telescope over a concrete patio, and it should be metal. And the cold matters more than people expect. The part is printed at room temperature and used at below freezing at three in the morning — plastic contracts, so a push-fit that was snug indoors can be loose in the field, and a shrink-fit can clamp and refuse to come off. PLA is the wrong choice for this specifically: it creeps under a steady load and goes brittle in the cold. Last one, and we mean it: we will not describe anything printed as safe for solar viewing. If you are mounting solar film, buy the proper mounted filter.
What prints well: shields, masks, adapters and shoes
Dew shields are the standout — a large, simple, light-blocking tube that costs a fortune in aluminium and nothing in filament, printed in segments and joined, sized to your tube's actual outside diameter. Line the inside with self-adhesive flocking when it arrives, because black plastic is still shiny plastic and a light shield that reflects is not doing its job. Bahtinov masks work well too, with one caveat: a mask is a diffraction grating, so the slot widths are the whole point, and the nozzle sets the narrowest slot we can make. On a typical refractor the geometry comes out fine; on a very short focal length the maths asks for slots narrower than the printer can draw, and we will tell you that before you order rather than after. Finder shoes and bases, eyepiece trays, spacers, non-load-bearing adapter bodies and low-voltage electronics boxes for a dew controller all suit the process. Tell us the tube diameter measured with a caliper, the aperture, the focal length, and what the part has to mate with, and we will tell you what will work.
Materials for a night in a field
The environment is cold, damp, occasionally sunny while you are setting up, and hard on plastic. ASA is the default for anything living outside on the tube: it stays tough in the cold, it resists UV for the daylight hours the kit spends assembled, and it does not creep. ABS is a reasonable alternative under a shroud. PETG is fine for interior and low-stress parts. PLA is the one to avoid — it creeps under a steady load, it goes brittle in the cold, and a summer car boot on the way back from a dark site gets hot enough to droop a dew shield into an oval. Print dark, expect a glossy black print to reflect anyway, and flock anything whose job is to stop stray light. If the part sees dew every session, keep in mind that nylon absorbs moisture and swells, which is exactly what you do not want in a fit you rely on.
How it works
Send your file or describe the part
Upload an STL, OBJ, 3MF or STEP file, or tell us what you need with photos and a few measurements.
Get a guide price
When we can read the geometry we estimate from it straight away — material, print time, supports and quantity all priced openly.
We check printability, then confirm
A person reviews orientation, wall thickness and supports, flags anything that will not print well, and confirms your final quote before any work starts.
Telescope & Astronomy Parts — example prices
Worked examples on real models from our print library, priced by the same calculator that estimates your own part. Sizes span small to large so you can see how cost moves with the part.
| Example part | Size | PLA | PETG | ABS / ASA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15mm Pipe Clip | 19 × 39 × 12 mm | £1.18 – £1.51 | £1.25 – £1.60 | £1.42 – £1.81 |
| 28mm Pipe Clip | 30 × 52 × 16 mm | £2.46 – £3.14 | £2.61 – £3.33 | £2.93 – £3.75 |
| L-Bracket (medium) | 50 × 30 × 50 mm | £4.75 – £6.08 | £5.01 – £6.40 | £5.58 – £7.13 |
| Gusseted Shelf Bracket (large) | 90 × 60 × 90 mm | £21.97 – £28.07 | £23.09 – £29.51 | £25.54 – £32.64 |
Guide prices for a single unit, calculated from the measured geometry of each example model — not fixed quotes. Small parts land at or near the £0 minimum order, and per-unit prices fall with quantity. Your price depends on your own part, its material and its printability. How pricing works.
Example models for telescope & astronomy parts
Open-source designs from our print library that show the kind of part this service suits. View any of them for a full material and quantity price breakdown.
Hex Nut M6
Display Plinth (medium)
15mm Pipe Clip
Hex Nut M8
These are open-source example designs (CC0) we publish to show what the process suits and what it costs — not a record of past jobs. Prices shown are examples in PLA.
Telescope & Astronomy Parts — FAQ
Can you print a lens or a mirror?+
No. An optical surface has to be accurate to a fraction of a wavelength of light and a printed part is stacked lines of plastic — the two are not in the same world. We make the parts around the optics: shields, masks, shoes, knobs, spacers and shrouds.
Can you print an adapter with a thread for my focuser?+
We can, and often we will advise against it. Plastic threads gall and wear loose, and a slack thread carrying a camera tilts the sensor and ruins the corners of your frames. If the thread carries weight or sets the alignment, use metal and let us make the spacer, the shield or the shroud.
Will the part still fit at two in the morning in December?+
That is the right question to ask. Plastic contracts in the cold, so we allow for it in a fit that has to work in the field rather than on the bench indoors. Tell us whether the fit needs to slide, clamp or stay put, and we will design the clearance around a cold night rather than a warm room.
Can you make a Bahtinov mask for my scope?+
Usually. Send the aperture, the focal length and the actual outside diameter of the tube measured with a caliper. The slot widths come from the focal ratio, and the nozzle sets our minimum — on a very fast, short scope the geometry can ask for slots we cannot print, and we will say so before you order.
How much does telescope & astronomy parts cost?+
There is no fixed per-item rate — price comes from how much plastic the part uses, how long it takes to print, how much support and finishing it needs, and how many you want. The example table above shows what real parts of this kind work out at. Upload your file for a guide price on your own part.
How long does it take?+
It depends on the size of the part, the queue and the material. Tell us your deadline when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable before you commit.
Can I order one of the models from your library?+
Yes. Every model in our print library is a design you can have printed — pick one, choose a material and quantity, and the example price on its page is your starting point. You can also download the file and take it elsewhere; they are all CC0.
Are my files kept private?+
Yes. Uploaded files go to private storage, are never made public, and are only used to quote and produce your job.
Worth reading first
Practical guides that help you get a better part and a more accurate quote.
What Is TPU (Flexible Filament)?
TPU is printable rubber. It bends, grips, seals and absorbs shock — and it behaves nothing like PLA, which is the whole point and the whole difficulty.
Nylon and Carbon Fibre Parts
The engineering end of FDM. Nylon is tough and wear-resistant; carbon fibre makes it stiff and stable. Both are harder work — here is when that pays off.
How to Copy a Part Without CAD
No file, no drawing, just a broken part and a pair of calipers. That is a perfectly normal starting point — here is how the process actually works.
Other services
Get a 3D print estimate
Upload your file or describe the part. We review printability before confirming anything.