Jeff's Astronomy Page

Astronomy Links

Here is an excellent article on how to collimate a Newtonian telescope written by Nils Olof Carlin.

Click here for the Amateur Telescope Makers Archives, where you can find tons of information about telescope making. While there, you can also join the ATM mailing list and join in on discussions about making your very own telescope.

For the very best telescoping making link, click here for Mel Bartles' Home Page. Mel is a leading authority on computerizing Dobsonian telescope. He tells you how to take some stepper moters, an old computer and some hardware to make a telescope that will track the stars as they move across the night sky. I hope to build one of his systems someday. Mel is one heck of a nice guy and many people around the world are grateful for his help.

My 10" Dobsonian

In the building of my own 10 inch (2,540 mm) telescope, I first read Richard Berry's Telescope Making book. Though widely praised by others, I thought the book came a little short for my own particular application (though I still recommend the book to others wanting to build their own telescope and, especially, grind their own mirrors). I felt the treatment given to mirror mounts, especially, was weak, as it left me confused as to whether I needed a 3 or 9 point flotation cell, amongst other things. I also had confusion over the best way to make a spider mount for the diagonal mirror. Consequently, my first telescope design was not all that good and I was not pleased with the results. So, I am currently in the process of rebuilding it, and I hope to end up with a high quality instrument that I can be proud of.

My first task was the primary mirror. I had purchased it from Coulter Optical in 1993 just before they went bankrupt so, knowing that the Coutler mirrors of the time were not exactly highly regarded, and fearing that one of the last mirrors may have been neglected, I sent it to someone for testing and possible refiguring. They replied that, except for a turned edge, it was in excellent shape and did not need to be refigured - that all I needed to do was mask off the outer edge of the mirror and it should give great service. With that bit of good news, I had the mirror recoated by Clausing (they did a great job with it) and I turned my attention back to the confusing area of mirror cells and spiders. c That is where I am at now. Compounding the problem a bit more is that I would eventually like to motorize my telescope, as I found before that it was nearly impossible to view the planets at higher magnifications. Part of the problem was my 'less than silky smooth' mount, which I hope to resolve in my rebuild. Still, I would like to design the new mount so that a minimal amount of rework would be necessary to that, in the future, I can motorize it.

Soon, I will post a log of my trials which I hope will be of use to someone else who is attempting to build a 10" Dobsonian telescope. Hopefully, too, I will have pictures and, within not too long, be able to report on a successful "first light".

Thanks.

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This page last updated on March 12, 1999