 |
| (A)mateur |
| (T)elescope |
| (M)aking |
|
|
QUOTE:
"I know of no subject connected with the pursuit of science
which so abounds with exciting and delightful interest as
that of constructing reflecting telescopes. It brings into
play every principle of constructive art, with the inexpressibly
glorious reward of a more intimate acquaintance with the sublime
wonders of the heavens."
James
Nasmyth, Inventor/Engineer, 1883
|
ATM Meetings:
If
you are located in San Diego County, or feel like driving down here,
check this page out for all of the information, maps, meeting dates,
email list, etc. The meetings consist of around 10+ ATM'ers getting
together and grinding, testing, and discussing mirrors or telescopes,
meeting at CSU San Marcos. These meetings should be held every Saturday
from 9am-12pm unless noted on the ATM Meetings page. Putting
yourself on the email
list will put you in better communication with the group should
something turn up and is recommended.
ATM
Links:
There are great resources on the web for mirror grinders and telescope
makers. Check out this small list of pages.
ATM
Suppliers: This
is a list of vendors that I used for my 10" project. I recommend
each of them. They were easy to work with and provided high quality
products. I do not warranty your experiences with them however <g>.
Tutorials: Read
various tutorials with tips and tricks for making your own telescope.
Please submit some of your own ideas!.
 My
ATM Status (updated 06/12/2000): I've put the 10" f/5.71
mirror blank on hold for right now. It's simply getting bogged
down in figuring and I need to complete a project to actually
do some observing with a hand-crafted scope. To that end I've
begun working on a 6" piece of Astrosital (low-expansion
Russian equivalent to Zerodur) to make a long focal length (f/11)
for specialized solar and planetary viewing. I'm down to 5 micron
aluminum oxide; next is 1.3 micron and then zirconium oxide.
It should be polished out in a week or two. Testing should be
simplified a little bit since it will only need to be a sphere
with no parabolization. If your interested in the 10" blank,
I've worked out my r^2/2R figures for my Couder mask using the
Millies-Lacroix Data Reduction
Method (as seen in TM #6, page 20)
and you can review my data here if you
want to drive yourself nuts! <g> |
|
Company Registration
