John Stewart's Amateur Telescope Making Info

Quick Index: ATM resources, barndoor mounts, collimation, computer control, schiefspiegler, show and tell, ATM software, vendors, bottom.

Bronwyn Shiffer joined us for the NOVAC telescope shoot-out at Camp High Road in July 2003. The red box under the finder scope houses the controls for the dew heaters for the finder scope and the pointing device. John appears to be installing the battery for the dew heaters and mirror cooling fan. After months of tripping over the cord to the external power pack, the scope was modified to accept a 9.6 volt rechargable R/C racing car battery. Photo by Alex Lim.

ATM Resources

At right: Pettson is looking for the flattest black he can find. He should try ground-up walnut shells.

Amateur Telescope Maker's (ATM) Archives. To subscribe to the ATM Mailing List, fill out this form.
ATM - Amateur Telescope Making, mirror site in the UK.
The ATM Site, resources and techniques for the amateur.
Mel Bartels' Home Page.
Books from Willman-Bell: Build Your Own Telescope, by Richard Berry. The Dobsonian Telescope, by David Kriege and Richard Berry.
Bob Bunge's 20th Century ATM Myths.
Roger Ceragioli's refractor construction.
How to convert a Daisy gunsight to a finder.
John Dobson & the Sidewalk Astronomers. His biography.
Notes from John Dobson's telescope-making class in San Francisco, Fall 1996.
Introduction to the plans for building a Dobsonian telescope. The plans. Plans on a NASA site.
Olle Eriksson's articles on ATM. How to make dew heaters.
Making eyepieces with basic tools, by James P. LaLone.
Douglas W. Jones on Stepping Motors.
Bob Lombardi's ATM's Resource List.
The Manchester Astronomical Society Projects.
David Ratledge's pages.
Riverside Telescope Makers Conference.
Dave Rowe's three-ball spherometer.
The San Diego ATM Astropages. They have classes!
Stellafane HomePage.
The Swayze Spider.
Stephen Tokin's resources and projects.
Martin Trittelvitz's extensive ATM pages, in German, in "broken English".
John D. Upton's ATM's Workshop: projects, tips and techniques.
Volker Lausch's ATM pages, in German.

Classes and Workshops

ATM Classes and Workshops
State	City	Description
AZ	Sierra Vista	The Huachuca Astronomy Club of Southeastern Arizona has mirror lab.
CA	Livermore	The Tri-Valley Stargazers holds a workshop, in Livermore.
	Oakland	The Chabot Space & Science Center holds a Telescope Makers' Workshop on Friday nights.
	San Jose	San Jose Astronomical Association holds classes at Houge Park, in San Jose.
	San Marcos	SDAA Mirror-Making Classes at Cal State in San Marcos. Another description.
	Torrance	El Camino College offers Astronomy 13, a lab in astronomical optics.
CT	Hartford	The Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford has Saturday mirror-making workshops.
DC	Washington	NCA Mirror-Making Class led by Guy Brandenburg and meeting at Chevy Chase Community Center in Washington, DC.
DE	Smyrna	The Delmarva Stargazers host an annual Mid-Atlantic Mirror Making Seminar.
IL	Urbana-Champaign	The Astronomical Society at the University of Illinois has workshops in mirror grinding and telescope building.
MA	Boston	The Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston.
ME	Newcastle	The Central Maine Astronomical Society apparently has an ATM group.
OR	Portland	The Rose City Astronomers , at Technical Marine Service, Inc. on Swan Island.
PA	Philadelphia	The Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers ATM group.
TX	Central Texas	ATM Classes at Lake Bob Sandlin Park and Lake Whitney State Park.
UT	Salt Lake City	John and Lisa Zeigler offer workshops, associated with MirrorKits.com.
VT	Springfield	The Springfield Telescope Makers Mirror Classes and Workshops at Stellafane in Vermont.

Computer-Controlled Telescopes

At right: While camping at Stellafane, Pettson gets a bad case of aperture fever. Meanwhile, Findus is just waiting for the big dinner on Saturday night before the drawings and the big talk.

AmSky - Encoder - a program for digital setting circles, using a PC mouse.
Computer Operated Telescopes by Mel Bartels.
Control of Stepping Motors a tutorial by Douglas W. Jones.
Digital Setting Circles for Amateur Telescopes, by Larry Bogan.
Corvus Astronomical Observatory Digital Encoding of Coordinates.
Phil Davis' Digital Setting Circles Project.
Dave Eck's digital setting circles project. Also here.
David Ditch's encoder mounting.
Stepper Motors a tutorial by Ian Harries.
Dan Stixrud's canned mouse. Also here.
TL Systems Astronomical Observatory EzDSC Digital Setting Circles.
Greg Granville's 12.5" Computer Controlled Telescope. His ATM page.
Don Halter's Computer Controlled Telescope.
NOVA Astronomics' Micro-Guider III (obsolete), Micro-Guider 5.
PC board/ATM, by Berthold Hamburger.
Bill Prewitt's digital alt-azimuth telescope drive.
Dual Axis Stepper Motor Controller, by David Rowe.

Mirrors, Mirror Cells and Secondary Holders

At right: My diagonal holder and spider. I'm not sure where one leaves off and the other begins. The legs of the spider are bicycle spokes. The spokes must several different lengths. Spokes can be shortened by a bolt cutter and then ground flat. I threaded them with a 2-56 die, which was adjusted to about half a size larger. The holder itself is 2 inch PVC pipe. The two hubs are cut from 1/8 inch aluminum, threaded to accept a small 1/4 inch (i.d.) pipe.

Mel Bartels' Large Thin Mirror Making.
How to cut glass blanks.
A Couder mask, Nils Olof Carlin and Ken Slater.
Nils Olof Carlin's thoughts about spiders in Newtonian telescopes.
Berthold Hamburger's tile on plaster grinding tool, also on the ATM Site.
Mark Holm's Couder mask program.
David Harbour's Winburn channeled hex tile tool.
John's Making a pitch lap.
Steven Lee's steel tool.
Thierry Legault's effects of obstructions.
Bob May's Mirror Making article. Bob May's web site.
Johan Vanbeselaere's mirror cell design help.
Gary Wolanski's offset spider assemblies.
Ronchi testing. How to make a Ronchi Screen from fishing line, by Clint Bach. Bob May's Ronchi testing.
Tile tools. The Astropages dental plaster tool.
How to make a tile tool by GotGrit.com.
Berthold Hamburger's Tile on Plaster grinding tool .

John's cement and tile tools.

Schiefspiegler

Anton Kutter is credited with the invention of the Schiefspiegler, which are reflecting telescopes without an obstruction caused by a secondary mirror. They are not easy to make and always attract a crowd.

Look at Oscar Knab's design to see the light path, unobstructed by an enclosure.
Spider's Schiefspiegler page. Out of order because the SEDS site has been hacked.
David Stevick's Weird Telescopes, including a bunch of Stevick-Paul telescopes.
The Yolo Schiefspiegler (site in German), designed by Arthur Leonard, a professor of optics, was named after his favorite vacation spot in California.
Here is a multi-mirror Schiefspiegler multi-mirror Schiefspiegler (in German). Mirror 2 also serves as mirror 4. Another description (also in German).

Show and Tell

At right: The upper cage. The spider uses bicycle spokes for struts. The spokes are several different lengths. Spokes can be shortened by a bolt cutter and then ground flat. I threaded them with a 2-56 die, which was adjusted to about half a size larger.

A Scope like Alice, a portable 8" Dobsonian telescope.
Ray Cash's 13" travel telescope. Also, look at his Dobsonian Evolution.
James Crombie's Astronomy and ATM pages.
Al Francis's 12½" Split Ring Telescope.
Dave Gault's ATM pages.
Dan Gray's 28" string scope.
Karsten's Fernrohrselbstbau.
Dale Keller's ATM pages. Lots of scopes here.
Michael Koch's 8" travelscope, using folding carpenter's rules.
Mike Lindner's Telescope Making.
David Raynalds' 20.5" motorized Dobsonian telescope.
Lin Robertson's Build your own Dobsonian.
Stathis Kafalis' Astronomy and Telescope Making Page.
Kurt Maurer's Sawdust Factory.
Jerry Pinter's Computerized Dob and CCD Images.
Bill Prewitt's 12½" f6 and 20" f5Dobsonians.
Ed Taychert's 14" mirror cell.
Ron Wagner's Build a Copyscope.
Tracy Wilson's 14.5" telescope with digital setting circles.
The Gary Wolanski Projects.
Barry Wolfe's telescopes.
The Bell Observatory. Well, not exactly an observatory. It's just his telescope sitting out on his deck in his back yard.

Barndoor (Scotch) mounts and equatorial platforms

At right: Pettson is trying to finish his new tracking mount in time for Stellafane, but has run into a snag. Findus is working on an alternative mechanism, but without thumbs, it's pretty tough.

John Stewart's Poncet platform design tool.
Jean-Mark Becker's evolved Poncet table.
Brad's 2nd generation German Equatorial Mount; the first generation.
Steve Brygen's 18-month Poncet table.
Dave's Equitorial Platform.
Don's Equitorial Platform.
Robert Duvall's barn door tracker.
Jeff DeTray's Barn Door Camera Mount.
Scotch Mount -- Double Arm.
Ray Grover's Quartz Controlled Scotch Mount.
Phil Harrington's Scotch mount.
The Jefferson Lab double-arm barn door tracker.
Kevin J. Kilburn's Heavy Duty Tangent Arm Drive.
Kurt Maurer's Homemade Equitorial Platform Page.
Thomas Jaeger's Die Nachführpplattform. His home page.
Another Nachführpplattform. This one has a interesting drive consisting of a threaded rod and a block-and-tackle.
Brian Rachford's barn door tracker.
Reagan's Dob Tracker.
Chuck Shaw's equatorial platform, also here on the ATM Page.
Dave Shouldice's Low Profile Equitorial Table.
Stephen Tonkin's Better Barn Door.
Dave Trott's double-arm barn door tracker.
Jan van Gastel's Scotch mount, in Dutch/en Nederlands.
Jan van Gastel's equatorial platform.
Evan Williams' precision double-arm drive.

Collimation

Collimating Newtonian Optics, by Mel Bartels.
FAQ about collimating a Newtonian by Nils Olof Carlin, also at the ATM Site. His article in Sky & Telescope How To Collimate Your Newtonian Reflector.

Adventures in Collimation by Bryan Greer.
Tom Clark's (Tectron Telescopes) article, Understanding the Basics of Collimation.
Jim Fly's Catseye Collimation System.
Collimation of Newtonian Telescope without special tools by Larry Gilstrap.
Philip Hoyle's article, Critical Collimation for Planetary Observing.
Collimation error due to focuser tilt by Doug Kniffen.
The Collimation by Thierry Legault.
Vic Menard's Realigning Newtonian Collimation. Vic is known as Mr. Collimation.
Scott McCluny's Treatise on Newtonian Collimation.
How to Make a Sight Tube for Collimation, by Adam Perkins. He uses a plumbing drain extension, but be sure the one you buy actually fits in your focuser.

At right: Guy Brandenburg preparing to collimate a telescope at the NCA mirror-making class. The scope itself is a commercially-made one. The equipment on the table in front will later be used to evaluate the mirror.