Stellafane History in Print

Selected books and articles that are about, or related to, Stellafane history.

• Russell W. Porter: Artic Explorer, Artist, Telescope Maker
  by Berton C. Willard, 1976, 274 pages. ISBN 0-87027-168-7 (hard), 0-87027-167-9 (paper).
  This is the definitive biography of the multi-talented Porter by our Stellafane club historian and museum curator.
• Journeyman Machinist en Route to the Stars
  by Oscar Seth Marshall, 1979, 156 pages. ISBN 0-88492-025-9 (hardbound).
  Autobiography of Oscar Marshall, original member of the Springfield Telescope Makers who like Porter joined the 200-inch telescope project at Caltech.
• The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope
  by Ronald Florence, 1994, 451 pages. ISBN 0-06-018205-9 (paperbound).
  Includes information on Porter's many contributions to the 200-inch telescope project and a small bit on his Stellafane roots.

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  Scientific American Articles
  Starting in November 1925, editor Albert G. Ingalls reported on the telescope making activities at Stellafane, and he edited a very popular section on this topic for many years. Your library may have old issues, or can find them all on the Scientific American: The Amateur Astronomer CD-ROM published in 2001.
• The ATM Books
  With ATM interest high, Scientific American published what was to become a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls which were compilations from the monthly columns and original material. They are (first printing):
  - Amateur Telescope Making (1933)
  - Amateur Telescope Making Advanced (1937)
  - Amateur Telescope Making Book Three (1955)
  Each of these volumes were reprinted many times, and the early volumes were added to and revised in later printings. Many articles were contributed by the Springfield Telescope Makers. These can still be had on the used book market. Willmann-Bell has repub­lished the set, re-arranged in logical order with a through index.
  ISBNs 0-943396-48-4 (v. 1), -49-2 (v. 2) and -50-6 (v. 3)
• Sky & Telescope Convention Reports & Deep-sky Wonders
  For many years, Sky & Telescope magazine carried articles with photographs of the annual Stellafane Convention. Also, Walter Scott Houston wrote the Deep-Sky Wonders column from 1946 thru 1994. "Scotty" was a regular at Stellafane, giving the beloved annual "Shadowgram" talk at convention. He would often mention Stellafane or our instruments in his columns. If your club or library has old issues available you can get a glimpse of our history in that era by browsing through them.