11/04/07

This is the heart of the web site, where I'll describe the various amateur telescope making (ATM) projects I have done. 

I got my start in ATM'ing in a curious way.  Having been inactive in amateur astronomy for nearly 15 years (About Me), I got back into the hobby in January 2000 by purchasing a 10" SCT.  Life was grand, but I decided that I wanted a larger scope for those few times each year when I anticipated getting beyond suburban skies into darker venues in the Shenandoah mountains or West Virginia.  Since this would be a "light use" scope (and my budget was limited) I planned to buy either a Meade or Celestron Dobsonian scope, which had to have as much extra light grasp over my 10" LX200 as possible to justify the move. 

I found a two-month old 16" Meade Starfinder on Astromart (www.astromart.com) in August 2001, drove the 400 miles roundtrip to pick it up, and found when I first set it up that it seemed as if Meade had basically sold the customer a decent set of optics and then thrown in barely workable hardware to let him use the mirrors, almost as an afterthought.  Having to manually insert the heavy mirror cell into the optical tube assembly (OTA) within a half inch of three steel mounting spars-- only two of which could be seen at any one time)-- particularly offended my sense of order, and seemed guaranteed to produce scratches on the mirror's edge in short order. (There were already a few when I got it, and I may have added an extra the one time I tried to mount the stock configuration.)   So, having set the scope up once, I embarked on what became endless rounds of "just a few changes" to make it easier to use.  After a year or so of steady modification, I had a totally customized, tracking, computer driven scope.

The curious side effect of all of this ATM'ing was that it improved my general handicraft skills and practical problem solving abilities.  The only "shop class" exposure I'd had was a semester each of wood and metal shop back in Intermediate school (1972-74), but I found myself doing all sorts of orthodox and unusual stuff with power tools.  I also found myself willing to improvise solutions to all sorts of home repair problems, ranging from the refrigerator to the central air conditioning system.  (I drew the line at working on natural gas...).   After looking at some kind of performance problem and the associated hardware, a solution invariably seemed to suggest itself.  Has anyone else found this happening after getting involved in ATM'ing?

What's in a Name?

OK, I'll admit it.  My stock commercial scopes like the LX200 and C-8 were cookie cutter parts like thousands of others, but any ATM project is unique to its builder, and the product of this investment of time and emotion warrants a name, in my opinion.  My first ATM Dob, the extensively modified Meade Starfinder 16 was nicknamed "Frankenscope" by my observing buddies, both in homage to its very homely appearance (lots of duct tape, velcro, and angle iron) and the fact that I repeatedly rebuilt it as a living experiment in ATM design.

I then went to a mirror grinding seminar (3rd DelMarVa Stargazer's workshop), and in a day and half managed to walk out with a 1/10th wavefront, smoothly micropolished full thickness 10" mirror.  This is intended to become a travel scope someday, but in the meantime I have been working in a desultory fashion to mount it in Sonotube and test it on Frankenscope's mount.  Given this symbiosis between the two, the moniker "Igor" seemed to fit the little scope.

When I then purchased a 20.4" f/6.7 scope, I found myself casting about for a name.  Since it was tall and dark (when shrouded) and monster-sized (the tallest scope in our Club), "Boris" seemed appropriate on several levels!

That led to my project to build what I intend to be my lifetime medium sized (16") Dob.  I planned to show that I could actually make something that was reasonably attractive as well as supremely functional, and this seemed to warrant a name from a different vein.   Then it occurred to me that "Boris" was usually accompanied by "Natasha" (for those of you who remember your "Rocky and Bullwinkle"), hence my first "feminine" scope was launched!

Within a scant few months of completing "Natasha" I lucked into the opportunity to acquire what to me seems to be the largest practical (moved in a single vehicle, stored fully assembled, and used without a ladder) Dob, a 24" f/4.  This huge scope was named "Brutus" for reasons explained in its web pages.

Follow the links below to get to each 'scope project!