{"id":215832,"date":"2026-05-04T11:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/?p=215832"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:44:14","slug":"team-cassi-diy-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Cassi DIY Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/td>\"\"<\/td>\"\"<\/td><\/tr>
Brendan Habert<\/td>Kol Bassuk<\/td>Yichen (Alex) Sun<\/td><\/tr>
bhabert@u.rochester.edu<\/td>kbassuk@u.rochester.edu<\/td>ysun87@u.rochester.edu<\/td><\/tr>
Project Manager<\/td>Scribe<\/td>Document Handler<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Customer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Igor Faleichik,\u00a0Cassi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advisors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optics Advisor: Jim Zavislan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mechanical Engineering Advisor: Kaan Aytekin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machine Shop Support: Bill Mildenberger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our goal is to design an easy to build telescope for 10-12 year olds while being able to resolve Jupiter. We took inspiration from the existing model of a classic Newtonian design from last year. We changed the focusing system, enhanced its mechanical robustness by switching the material to aluminum, and improved alignment by introducing collimation screws. We also integrated a phone mount for the eyepiece to allow easy access to photo capture without further perturbation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optical Design Experimentation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The designs above show our preliminary designs (Top: Cassegrain, Bottom: Newtonian) experimentation which included the use of a prism to erect the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Design<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This image shows our final model which overlayed the optical Newtonian design over the mechanical model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Comparison<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image<\/td>\"\"<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The left image above shows last year\u2019s 3D printed telescope. The right image shows our design which prioritized resolution and mechanical stability while sacrificing packaging to improve the image quality and ease of focusing.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The project aims to design a simple, child-friendly telescope capable of resolving Jupiter\u2019s Red Spot, based on an existing Newtonian design. Improvements include a new focusing system, changing of material, better alignment via collimation screws, and a phone mount for easy astrophotography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18732,"featured_media":236482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4452,7692],"tags":[],"coauthors":[23832,23842,23852],"class_list":["post-215832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-year","category-optsd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTeam Cassi DIY Telescope - Senior Design Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Team Cassi DIY Telescope - Senior Design Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The project aims to design a simple, child-friendly telescope capable of resolving Jupiter\u2019s Red Spot, based on an existing Newtonian design. Improvements include a new focusing system, changing of material, better alignment via collimation screws, and a phone mount for easy astrophotography.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Senior Design Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-04T15:44:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8849-1-1200x630.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kol Bassuk, Brendan Habert, Alex Sun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kol Bassuk, Brendan Habert, Alex Sun\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kol Bassuk\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0f1c2f5c767eb9cb978054565cbe9f3b\"},\"headline\":\"Team Cassi DIY Telescope\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-04T15:44:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":206,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"1. Current Year Programs\",\"Optical Engineering Senior Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/\",\"name\":\"Team Cassi DIY Telescope - Senior Design Day\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-04T15:44:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0f1c2f5c767eb9cb978054565cbe9f3b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Team Cassi DIY Telescope\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/\",\"name\":\"Senior Design Day\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0f1c2f5c767eb9cb978054565cbe9f3b\",\"name\":\"Kol Bassuk\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\\\/senior-design-day\\\/author\\\/kbassuk\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Team Cassi DIY Telescope - Senior Design Day","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Team Cassi DIY Telescope - Senior Design Day","og_description":"The project aims to design a simple, child-friendly telescope capable of resolving Jupiter\u2019s Red Spot, based on an existing Newtonian design. Improvements include a new focusing system, changing of material, better alignment via collimation screws, and a phone mount for easy astrophotography.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/","og_site_name":"Senior Design Day","article_published_time":"2026-05-04T15:44:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8849-1-1200x630.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kol Bassuk, Brendan Habert, Alex Sun","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kol Bassuk, Brendan Habert, Alex Sun","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/"},"author":{"name":"Kol Bassuk","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1c2f5c767eb9cb978054565cbe9f3b"},"headline":"Team Cassi DIY Telescope","datePublished":"2026-05-04T15:44:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/"},"wordCount":206,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg","articleSection":["1. Current Year Programs","Optical Engineering Senior Design"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/","name":"Team Cassi DIY Telescope - Senior Design Day","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-05-04T15:44:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1c2f5c767eb9cb978054565cbe9f3b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_8849-1-scaled.jpeg","width":1920,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/team-cassi-diy-telescope\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Team Cassi DIY Telescope"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/","name":"Senior Design Day","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/#\/schema\/person\/0f1c2f5c767eb9cb978054565cbe9f3b","name":"Kol Bassuk","url":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/author\/kbassuk\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215832"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238962,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215832\/revisions\/238962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215832"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hajim.rochester.edu\/senior-design-day\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=215832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}