June 1997

The telescope story started about 9 yrs ago. My son, Ted, had visited a friend in southern Indiana. The friend's father had built his own telescope and, sensing that I would be interested, my son borrowed a couple of books on the subject from the friend's father. I was, of course, very interested as this was the first indication that I was aware of that such a project was within the grasp of an amateur.

At about the same time, the Smithsonian magazine ran a story about John Dobson, who is now considered to be the father of what has become known as the "Dobsonian" style of reflecting telescope. Dobson is a "free spirit" type of guy who absolutely despises conventional or established thinking about how to build telescopes. Prior to Dobson, conventional wisdom was that only scholarly physics types could oversee the making of a mirror (which is the heart of a reflector type of telescope) and even then, it was made to sound like a "big deal" project. Well, Dobson comes along and says "bullroar!" to all that and proceeds to dedicate the rest of his life to telling the world how easy it is to make a telescope yourself and what a fascinating place the night sky is.

Needless to say, I was hooked. I ran out the next day and bought copies of "Sky & Telescope" and "Astronomy" magazines. In the classified ads, I found phone numbers and addresses for telescope parts suppliers. I then ordered a 6 inch mirror blank kit (two 1 inch thick pieces of pyrex glass 6 inches in diameter) and a set of grinding powders (abrasive compounds that are graded from course to fine in about 5 steps).

I won't go into the grinding details. In short, by rubbing the two glass pieces together (with water and grinding compound in between), you eventually (takes about 50 hours) end up with one with a hump and one with a cupped out part. The part that is cupped out is then fine tuned into a parabola (it gets pretty technical) and after it receives a fine coating of aluminum, it becomes the main mirror in your telescope. Of course, you have to build a tube (or housing) to hold the mirror and a swivel base to set it on. And you have to get a secondary mirror and mounting assembly. Also, you have to get an eyepeice and a focuser assembly (the latter I made from parts I rummaged up in the plumbing section of a hardware store). All total, I would guess that I have about $150 invested in my telescope (not counting my time). If you were to go out and buy a similar one from a commercial supplier, it would probably cost at least $500 - $600.

A funny little footnote to this story is that my son, Ted, had another friend (Sean) over one time who, himself, really became fascinated by the telescope I had made. Like me, he had no prior idea that such a project was within the grasp of commoners. In short, he too got himself a kit and started to make his own telescope. At one point, he got frustrated about something and decided to talk to none other than John Dobson himself. So, knowing nothing more than that John Dobson lives somewhere in San Francisco, Sean proceeds to call the San Francisco long distance telephone operator. I haven't a clue as to what transpired next between Sean and the operator, but the upshot of it all was that Sean did in fact get connected to John Dobson at his home phone and the two of them had a real fine chat about building telescopes! (I mean, this was like calling heaven and asking for God!!......:-)