2007-11-06 05:42:00 · 7 answers · asked by mark r 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I ground my own 6" reflector telescope at the Alder Planetarium (Chicago). They have a complete lab in the basement to help people grind their own mirrors, and the will be happy to offer some advice for beginners and show you what it will take.
2007-11-06 05:49:51 · answer #1 · answered by Steve C 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would like to second campbelp's advice. I wanted to grind my own and fortunately was talked out of it. Also the size of the mirror is important, as the difficulty is pretty much proportional to the square of the diameter.
He mentioned buying a complete telescope, which is a good way to go, but there is a middle ground if you have access to decent power tools. You can buy the primary and the diagonal and other optics and fittings, and build your own Dobsonian telescope. That's what I did. Make sure you have something to use for a tube before you choose a mirror size. The mirror mount is probably the most challenging part to build.
2007-11-06 06:08:46 · answer #2 · answered by Brant 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are books on the subject. I did it by just reading several books and following the directions. But the results were not worth the time and cost. These days with so many high quality and low priced telescopes available commercially it really doesn't pay to do it. But if you just want to do it for the fun, get some of the old books in the source. The main book in that source is the one I liked the most, but the others in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section are all classics. I have many of them. And seek out the local astronomy club. Many of them still do mirror making. Unfortunately I have not seen that many on line resources. It seems mirror making went out of style at about the time the Internet took off. So you will need the actual printed on paper books.
2007-11-06 05:50:17 · answer #3 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would agree that it's not worth the time and the effort any more. And unlike, say, homegrown tomatoes, there is nothing like an "organic" and guaranteed pesticide free optical mirror.
What might be interesting, though, is a project to grind a historic lens/mirror and to build a replica of a famous telescope. That I would understand as a history project.
For amateur astronomy, just get the kind of instrument you like and be done with it. Or, if you want custom optics and your own instrument design, ask an optics shop to make the components for you. I would do that if I wanted to build e.g. an extremely wide field astro-camera, which does not seem to be available as an amateur instrument.
2007-11-06 06:05:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
See if you can find "Homebuilt Telescopes (Mirror Grinding, Testing and Figuring, Construction, Mounting"
by Sam Brown
Other than that, you may find a telescope hobbyist at a local school science or astronomy lab.
2007-11-06 05:49:27 · answer #5 · answered by credo quia est absurdum 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ATM webring has some great sites:
http://www.starastronomy.org/TelescopeMaking/WebRing/
Moved to:
http://www.crickrock.com/cgi-bin/webring/list.pl?ringid=TelescopeMaking
EDIT:I have only ever purchased completed mirrors (a 6" and an 8") to make 2 telescopes.
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2007-11-06 05:49:35 · answer #6 · answered by tlbs101 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try the site below.
2007-11-06 05:50:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋