Telescope Making Links - Designs and Techniques

Ideas and how to do things

 
General Information
 
Amateur Telescope Maker's (ATM) Archives
The ATM Page
Getting Started with Building Your First Telescope
Assembling Your Telescope
Mark's Favorite Telescope Making Links
 
Eyepieces
 
Astronomy Boy: Homemade Eyepieces
Barlow extensions
 
Metal
 
Anodizing
 
Mirror Cells
 
Mirror Cells for Amateur Telescope Makers
Johan Vanbeselaeres Mirror Cell Design Help
Coulter Makeover Part 1 - An Easy to Make Six Point Mirror Cell
Schmidling's Mirror Cell PLOP Mirror Cell Design
8 Inch Mirror Cell
 
CCD
 
The Audine Project
Cookbook CCD camera Home Page
Kodak: Solid State Image Sensors
Apogee provides high-performance CCD digital imaging cameras
SBIG Santa Barbara Instrument Group
Starlight XPress - Welcome
 
 
 
Spiders and Secondary Holders
 
Secondary and Tertiary plan
Spider and Front End
Guitar Machine Head Spider Tensioners
A Hacksaw Spider
Berthold Hamburger's 2 vane spider & secondary holder
A Hacksaw Spider
Swayzes' How to build a Spider for your Telescope
 
 
Focusers
 
How to make a Focuser
Clement Focuser
Berthold Hamburger's Sled Focuser
The ATM Page - Crayford Focuser
Another Focuser
 
 
Dew Control
 
Board Layout for Don Clement's Dew Heater Compensation Circuit
Home made dew heater
 
 
Binocular Mounts
 
building a parallelogram binocular mount
A Parallelogram Binocular Mount
 
 
Optical Design
 
OSLO Optical Design Software
Focus Software Inc. - ZEMAX? optical design and analysis software
Telescope Optics
ATMOS Optical Design and Analysis Software
MODAS Optical Design Program - software overview
A Reflective Spectroscope
Peter Smith
Stevick-Paul Telescopes
Unobstructed Newtonian
Herrig Telescope
Ken's Eyepiece Corner
Icarus Optics
Optical formulae
Mersenne Telescope Article
The Kutter Schiefspiegler
Yolo Telescopes
 
 
Grinding Glass
 

An ATM's Grinding Barrel Top
Grinding Your Telescope Mirror
Polishing Your Telescope Mirror
Glass Notes
Grit and Microgrit Grading Conversion Chart at READE
Making a tile on plaster tool
Berthold Hamburger's Tile Tool Page (mirror)
Grinding with Washers
Grinding Large Thin Mirrors Part I
Grinding,Polishing and Figuring Large Thin Mirrors - Part 2 - Polishing
Astronomy, telescope making ,mirror grinding and testing
Large Thin Mirror Making by Mel Bartels 

 
Grinding Machines
 
Mirror-o-matic
Tom Waineo's Desktop Grinding/Polishing Machine
Ken Lilja's Grinding Machine
Grinding Machine
 
Figuring
 
Figuring a Paraboidal mirror by thermal predistortion
 
Optical Testing
 
The Basics of Telescope Testing
Test Stand
Rating Mirrors by Mel Bartels
Mathematics of Mirror Testing
 
Foucault Test
 
Understanding the Foucault test 
Foucault Tester
Mirror Zone Calculator
Slitless Foucault Tester (Berthold Hamburger)
Homemade Foucault Tester
A Geometric Explanation of the Foucault Test
Jim Burrows' Sixtests Foucault Software
Rdunna ATM Page
Mike Lindner
Stellafane ATM: Build a Mirror Tester
Foucault Test Software
Figure XP Software
 
Caustic Test
 
Poor man's caustic test
 
Interference Tests
 
Fringe testing a secondary
Shearing Interferometer
 
Null Tests
 
Waineo Null Tester
Null Test for Asperic Mirrors
Ross Null Test
Lens and Software for Ross Null Test 
 
Optical Flats
 
Russell Optics
 
Star Test
 
Star Testing
 
Ronchi Test
 
The Ronchi Test
Berthold Hamburger's Home Page/Ronchi Screen
Ronchi Test by Mel Bartels
Matching Ronchi Test
 
Spherometers
 
Spherometer
Astro-Tel - Spherometers Page
Ken Hunter's Spherometer Spreadsheet
 
Silvering/Aluminizing
 
Mirror Resilvering
The Bell Jar - Vacuum Technique for the Amateur
Notes on the silvering of mirrors

 
Astronomy Clubs
 
Stellafane HomePage
Stillwater Stargazers (Ohio)
Welcome to S*T*A*R Astronomy Club
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society (KAS)

 
Collimation
 
The YACHT or Yet Another Collimating Home-made Tool
Laser Collimation Tool
My laser collimator
S*T*A*R Astronomy - Making a Sight Tube
CosmicOne - Ultra Cheap Collimation Eyepiece
 
  
Software
 
ATM Programs
Telescope Making Software
Ken's Telescope Calculator
John Upton
ATM Software
IRAF Software
XEphem 3.2.2
WinEphem -- An ephemerides program for Windows
SkyMap Software home page
LinuxAstro Software

 
Barn Door
 
Barn Door
AstronomyPageFiveBarnDoor
Astronomy Boy: Barn Door Camera Mount
The double-arm barn door tracker
Scotch mount/barndoor artikel
Portable Equatorial Mount
 
 
German Equatorial Mounts (GEMs)
 
CAPELLA PLANS
Brads Homebuilt GEM
Second Generation Roller Drive GEM
Jim Sapp's German Mount
Schmidling's Equatorial Mount
Astronomy Boy: Animated Equatorial Mount Tutorial
Astronomy Boy: CG-5 Mount Improvements
EQUATORIAL MOUNT
 
Dobsonian Mount
 
Simple Dobsonian Design
More Dobsonian Designs
Another Simple Dobsonian Design
 
Telescope Drives
 
Dob Driver
Dob Driver Installation 
Stellarcat
Mel Bartel's Computer Operated Telescopes
 
Poncet Equatorial Table
  
A Low Profile Equatorial Table
An Evolved Poncet Platform
Cylindrical Bearing Equatorial Platforms
 
Split Ring Telescope Mount
 
Al Francis' Splt Ring Telescope
10 inch Split Ring Telescope
Dale Keller's Split Ring Telescope
 
Other Mounts
 
Meade Field Tripod Modifications
 
Binocular Telescope
 
8 inch Binoscope
 
Digital Setting Circles 
 
Dave Ek's Digital Setting Circle Project
 
Finders
 
Red Dot Finder
The Infinity or Reflex Sight
AstronomypagethreeAReflexSightone
Daisy Gun sight modification (yet another)
Mike Lindner's Scope Page
 
 
Scope Plans
 
My First Scope
My Mini
12.5" Dall-Kirkham Telescope
Bob Bunge's TJ2 - Story of a 20-inch Dobsonian Telescope, the history of a 20 year old Dobsonian
CosmicOne - The 4 Inch Dob Home Page
Al's 12?" Split-Ring Telescope
Building A Dilworth Relay Telescope
Tom Krajci's Minimalist, Virtual Counter Weight, Dobsonian
Bruce Weertman's 6 Inch RFT Telescope
8 inch F5.2 Puzzle Scope
Alice
8 Inch Dobsonian/Newtonian
Mark Kaye's Equipment Page
Bruce Sayre
Schiefspieglers
Telescope Making by Jean-Marc Becker
Clive Milne's Lightweight 12.5"
 
Schiefspiegler (Tilted Optic) Telescopes
 
Schiefspiegler Telescopes
New Tetra Telescope
A New Concept for Tilted-Component Telescopes
 
Travel Scopes
 
Bob Bunge's 12.25-inch f/5.4 "Ellie" Suitcase Travel Telescope
 
Copy Scopes
 
Build a Copyscope
 
Other Plans
 
Projects Ppage
An Eyepiece Storage Case
The ATM's Workbench
 
ATM People
 
Greg Babcock
Dan Bakken
Mel Bartels
Bob Bunge's TJ2 - A Quick Remove Wheel Barrow Handle System for a 20-inch Dobsonian
Dave Bevel
Michael Coslo
James Crombie
Jeff DeTray (Astronomy Boy)
Olle Eriksson
David Fansler
Dave Gault
Joe Goins
Berthold Hamburger
Mark Kaye
Jonathan Kern
stans atm site
Claudio Minutella
Donald Qualls (aka the Silent Observer)
Scott Rychnovsky
Benoit Schillings
David Stevick
Ed Stewart
Johan Vanbeselaeres
Mark VandeWettering
Jan van Gastel
Bruce Weertman
Graham Wood
Jin Huei Proty Wu 
 
Observing Chairs
 
Observer's Seat
Denver Observer?s Chair Modification
Jim Fly's Catsperch Observing Chair