Hermitage man makes backyard telescope from scratch
Tucker has been "tinkering" by building a 7-foot tall telescope that can see galaxies, nebulas and star formations far, far away. Tucker's telescope is a Newtonian style model, which uses a primary concave mirror that Tucker made about 20 inches in diameter. The primary mirror then reflects the light off a secondary mirror that brings it back to the eyepiece. Tucker made the mirror out of glass using the polishing and grinding process. He also made the machine to grind the mirror. Read more
Astronomer John Dobson will again conduct his annual telescope-making class in Monmouth throughout July. The class will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 2-30, and will teach participants to make their own top-quality telescope, which will be powerful enough to see the rings of Saturn, some of the moons and atmospheric bands of Jupiter, and details of craters on the Moon. A pre-class meeting will be held Thursday, June 11, for registration, handing out instructions, and questions and answers. The first day of the class, July 2, will feature rough-grinding of the mirrors.
DIY Telescope - Should You Make Your Own? Should you make your own telescope? Making you own telescope is often abbreviated as ATM (amateur telescope making) and it has quite a following of enthusiasts. If you read about the history of astronomy, you will see that many of the great astronomers in the past built their own telescopes. They sought to improve on what was available and also, to build an instrument that was designed for the work they wanted to do.
In 1934, a small group of young men, imbued with a mutual interest in astronomy and a curiosity about the tools of the astronomer, organised themselves into the New York Telescope Makers Association. With the erection of the Hayden Planetarium in 1935, a new focal point of astronomical interest was created for the New York metropolitan area. Shortly thereafter the telescope making group became a part of the Amateur Astronomers Association, an organisation now of about 500 members, sponsored since 1927 by the American Museum of Natural History. Read more
Celestial Celebrations Cliff Perkall built his first telescope in 1971 and has been a amateur astronomer and telescope builder ever since. Perkall hosts star parties at South Florida Community College throughout the year.
How To Build a Dobsonian Telescope: DIY Astronomy Project You, too, can avoid astronomical costs by watching stars through a tricked-out cardboard tube. PM builds one and speaks to John Dobson, the man behind the plans, about the joys of DIY astronomy.
Nanjing Intane Optical Engineering Co., Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of customised high-quality precision focuser, Apochromatic Lens and Optical Lens in China. Founded by Professor Bifang Zhou, this esteemed manager is the former director of the Nanjing Astronomical Instrument Research & Development Centre under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Do you own broken binoculars that arent worth fixing but you dont have the heart to throw them away? They probably have Kellner eyepieces that will work fine in a telescope. A 7x35 binocular eyepiece typically has a 20-mm focal length, while those on 7×50s usually have a 30-mm focal length, to provide a wider field of view. If you dont already own throw-away binoculars, try a pawn shop.