Great surprise: Hackaday, a leading reference for hacking, DIY, and digital fabrication, featured the Smallest in an article titled “Build Your Own Telescope, the Modern Way.”
What the article covers
Hackaday highlights the project’s approach: instead of hand-grinding your own mirror the traditional amateur way, the Smallest relies on 3D printing for the structure and off-the-shelf (or salvaged) optics for the optical path, a genuinely modern take on building a telescope.
The article also covers a few deliberate technical choices:
- 150/750 mm focal length, for a complete tube weighing around 2 kg once printed
- PETG, ASA, or ABS recommended over PLA, which deforms too easily in the heat, an important point for a telescope designed to travel
- French-language documentation and a Discord community to support builders
- A pre-assembled kit option for those who’d rather skip printing altogether
Hackaday also places the project alongside other recent open-source telescope efforts, such as the Hadley, great news for the whole community exploring this approach.
Open-source version vs. commercial version
One useful clarification for anyone discovering the project through this article: the version freely available on Printables is the Smallest’s original prototype, not the final version. It’s the design that proved the concept and built a community around it, but many features added since then (mechanical refinements, finish options, compatible accessories, and more) aren’t part of it.
The version sold in the shop reflects how the telescope has evolved since, with those improvements built in. Both paths make sense: print the open-source prototype to understand and experiment with the design, or go with the commercial version to get all the improvements right away.
Thank you
A huge thank you to the Hackaday team for the spotlight, and to everyone in the community who’s been printing, testing, and building the Smallest from the start, especially Magnitude 78, a major source of inspiration for this project.
Check out the Smallest in the shop or the open-source files on Printables.