Russell Porter
Grinding a Mirror

"For it is true that astronomy, from a popular standpoint, is handicapped by the inability of the average workman to own an expensive astronomical telescope. It is also true that if an amateur starts out to build a telescope just for fun he will find, before his labors are over, that he has become seriously interested in the wonderful mechanism of our universe. And finally there is understandably the stimulus of being able to unlock the mysteries of the heavens by a tool fashioned by one's own hand."
Russell W. Porter, March 1923, Founder of Stellafane

 

Please read first: The Stellafane ATM Pages are currently under construction. The list below contains many different aspects of telescope making from grinding your own mirror to making the mount for your telescope. Included also is a list of books you can reference for further study. Since the construction of the ATM pages is just starting up many of the links in the list have not been activated yet. As the individual sections are completed they will be uploaded to the Stellafane site and then linked to the ATM page so if the section that you need is not yet active check back in a while. Also, if there are other aspects of telescope making that you're interested in that you don't see on the list please let us know. Thanks!

Introduction

A lot has changed since Russell Porter wrote those words - today the "average workman" can afford to buy an already made telescope and Dobsonian mountings are very popular.  Much is also unchanged - mirror grinding techniques are very similar to those written up by Porter and Ingalls in the 20´s and 30´s. Many amateur astronomers still choose to fabricate their own instruments, for the pride of accomplishment, the gaining of knowledge and the insurance of quality. Telescope making is at the heart of the Springfield Telescope Makers - after all its two thirds of our club's name - and on these pages we hope to show your that you too can make your own telescope - and it can be an excellent performer!

A note on ATM techniques: There are almost as many ways to make mirrors and telescopes as there are telescope makers. On these pages we present one way or more ways that have worked for us, but that doesn't mean there aren't many other valid approaches. In fact, many of us enjoy ATMing because we can experiment with different techniques and sometimes find better ways of making or building a telescope. And even if our new technique isn't better, we usually learn something valuable in the process. On these pages, however, we have tried to stick with simple and proven techniques that are most appropriate for novice mirror and telescope makers, and are generally what we teach beginners at Stellafane.

Stellafane Amateur Telescope Making Table of Contents

Note: The first Stellafane ATM page was created on 1998-Nov-16, and pages have been added as time permits ever since. The site is still not complete, but work continues to produce easy to understand text, pictures and diagrams. Our goal is to make this as easy to understand possible, which actually takes surprising amount of work to accomplish. Thanks for your patience and understanding. And a special thanks to all those who have written to complement us on the contents -- it definitely is an incentive to work even harder on completing the Stellafane ATM Web Site!

Page last edited 2007-Sep-23