Howard N.E. (Ed.) Standard Handbook for Telescope Making

New York: Harper & Row – 1984. – 365 p. In the past few years there have been two important developments in amateur astronomy. One is the wide variety of mass-produced, but still expensive, telescopes now produced commercially, and the other the increasingly fine telescopes built by amateurs, ranging from simple Dobsonian types to complex equatorials employing many kinds of mountings. The home-built instrument is still the choice of many amateur enthusiasts. This book is for those of you who would like to try building your own. What you create may not look quite as finished as the telescopes made by commercial manufacturers, but after all, the quality of the image seen through the eyepiece has nothing to do with the instrument's appearance. The basic component of any Newtonian telescope is the mirror, a part the amateur can make as well as, and often better than, the mass producer. Although you will find directions in this book for making the other essentials, the eyepiece and diagonal mirror, these parts are best left to professional opticians because they require complex techniques and processes. Modern eyepieces are well worth their cost. Today the tendency is toward ever larger and thinner mirrors, but these are very difficult for a beginner to make. For this reason the first-time mirror maker will do well to make a medium-sized, moderate focal length mirror, the 8-inch f/7 described in this book.On Telescopes in General
The Mirror: General Procedures and Equipment
The Mirror: Rough Grinding
The Mirror: Fine Grinding
The Principle of the Foucault Test
Pitch Laps and Polishing
More About Polishing
The Mirror: Testing for the Paraboloid
Parabolizing the Mirror
The Diagonal
The Eyepiece
The Telescope Tube and Its Fittings
The Mounting for the Telescope
Adjustments and Additions
The Observatory
Using Your Telescope
Celestial Photography
Other Telescopes