Telescope and photo by Jean-Marc Becker
For a long time I thought a telescope can only be manufactured by a big factory equiped with state-of-the art equipments. I thought it can not be made at home. Then I read Terence Dickinson's Backyard Astronomer's Guide. I changed my mind: "Wow, a home made telescope? Oh yes, of course. Those people who build their own scopes must have a well eguiped workshop in their garage." As it turned out I was wrong but I lived with that thought for about 3 years until 1997
That year, I wanted to buy a scope to replace my 8" SCT.
Though my SCT is relatively portable (setting up takes only 5 to 10 minutes if it's disassembled
first but I usually take it outside in one piece), traveling with it is nother thing.
The telescope hardcase and the tripod will take up the space of my car trunk.
So I decided to sell it and buy me a more portable scope. Genesis sdf was
on the top of my list.
And then the currency crisis, which
lead to a financial crisis later that year, hit my country. Buying things
from overseas became harder and finally became impossible. I had to
burry my dream of having a portable scope. Fortunatelly, someone I know
from the Internet asked me why don't I build the scope myself. My answer
was that I don't have the equipments to build it. He then gave me some
home page addresses of, what now I know as, some Amateur Telescope Makers.
I visited those addresses and join the ATM List.
From the pages that I visited and from the discussion in the ATM List I
learn many things. I learn that to make a telescope, I do not have to have
a workshop filled with fancy equipments. You only have to have some standards
woodworking tools. And they don't have to be power tools. Hand tools will
be fine.
One of the best thing that I learn from the ATM List is humanity.
The people from this List are great. Whenever you have problem that you
can't solve, questions or anything, the members of this list are there to
help you. This list is full of nice and kind people, something you don't
see very often nowadays.
So if you think that you need a large amount of money to own a telescope to enjoy the beauty of the night sky, you're WRONG. It is TRUE if you want to have a high quality telescope by purchasing it. High quality telescopes are expensive. But with less amount of money you can have a high quality telescope, if you make it yourself. Please read Donald Rosenfield's essays to learn why.
In my humble page, you can find information on how to build a telescope
yourself. With resources that's available locally. Well not everything, you
may have to buy the mirror blank from overseas, but the rest of the components
can be made with materials that you can find in a hardware store.
Everything you read here is not mine. The information, the ideas and the
knowledge are in my hand because there are great people out there, who
call themselves Amateur Telescope Makers, who make this knowledge available
to everyone and share their knowledge with everyone
If you find mistakes here, those mistakes are mine. It's either because
I misunderstand what I learn from other ATMers or I made an error in typing.
If you want to build your own dream scope, I recomend you to go to other great ATM Sites and join the ATM List, you can go there by following the links here. Believe me, you'll learn a lot of things.
Links to other sites on the Web
The ATM Page
The ATM Chat forum
Mel's Page
The ATM Archives
© 1997 bob@bahana.co.id
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