Telescopes are great tools for observing the heavens, or even surrounding landscapes if you have the right vantage point. You don’t have to be a professional to build one though; you can make all kinds of telescopes as an amateur, as this guide from the Springfield Telesfcope Makers demonstrates.
The guide is remarkably deep and rich; no surprise given that the Springfield Telescope Makers club dates back to the early 20th century. It starts out with the basics—how to select a telescope, and how to decide whether to make or buy your desired instrument. It also explains in good detail why you might want to start with a simple Newtonian reflector setup on Dobsonian mounts if you’re crafting your first telescope, in no small part because mirrors are so much easier to craft than lenses for the amateur. From there, the guide gets into the nitty gritty of mirror production, right down to grinding and polishing techniques, as well as how to test your optical components and assemble your final telescope.
It’s hard to imagine a better place to start than here as an amateur telescope builder. It’s a rich mine of experience and practical advice that should give you the best possible chance of success. You might also like to peruse some of the other telescope projects we’ve covered previously. And, if you succeed, you can always tell us of your tales on the tipsline!
Grinding, polishing, and figuring a telescope mirror is enormously rewarding. I did my first 8″ just over 50 years ago, and the idea that I could make an item accurate to millionths of an inch with primitive equipment was compelling. The quality obtained is largely if not solely dependent on the time and thought spent on the work.
Unfortunately, a plethora of substandard scope components have hit the markets, and there is no way to tell the quality until one has actually used the scope. Moreover, the cost of a mirror kit surpasses the cost of a (cheap) finished mirror.
(The cheap short-tube 6″ scopes that plague the internet are to be avoided. They depend on an optical system that is rarely of decent quality. You may enjoy your first look at the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn, but will quickly become dissatisfied by the fuzzy images of most other objects.)
Still, for anyone truly interested in astronomy and observing, I would strongly advise either buying an expensive but high-quality optical system, or take the time and effort to make it yourself. The thrill of first light through a mirror made with one’s own hands is not to be forgotten.
I’ve always wanted to grind my own mirrors. For other projects too. Mostly because mirrors, and optical components, are so expensive. Do you know of any good guides aside from stellafane, or is that about all anyone would need to know?
Check out this old video on John Dobson and his telescope grinding classes from back in the days
https://youtu.be/snz7JJlSZvw?si=VkWbSTI0PTcKQdFW
Check out Cloudy Nights, good website for amateur astronomy whether you buy borrow or build. The amateur telescope maker (ATM) forum seems to have a few ongoing mirror grinding projects at any given time, and there are many completed threads in the archives. Often these are first-timers asking all kinds of questions as they go, with quite a few very seasoned advanced amateurs and a few professional mirror makers who are happy to give advice and guidance. Reading a few of them will give you a good idea of the scope (I know, I couldn’t think of a better word…) of grinding a mirror, as well as some highly detailed specific challenges that arise during the process. There are also some amazing projects of reflectors approaching meter-class in there, with teams contributing to the builds. Those tend to move a bit slower naturally.
I’m putting the finishing touches on a 17.5″ f/4.5 Newtonian (disclosure: I bought the mirror used, but built everything else, and actually I found the mirror in the classifieds) and while I’m not quite ready to commit to grinding my own right now, I think there’s a pretty good chance I will end up getting into it in the future.
Agreed, sometimes things like this are not about saving money.
The classic is “how to make a telescope” by Texereau. Available on Amazon. Your local library might have a copy.
Absolutely! I built my first Telescope when I was 15 yrs old,( I’m now 74) I remember ordering Jean Texereau’s book from Edmund Scientific and grinding my first mirror, a 150mm (6 in) scope but I mounted the square tube scope on an equatorial mount I bought from a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society.
I would love to build my own telescope, maybe one day… oh! and I definitelly love the webpage style!
Starting in the 1920’s Scientific American magazine had a monthly series called “Amateur Telescope Making” edited by Albert Ingalls. It became a three volume set “The Amateur Telescope Builder.” It covered the entire process of astronomy instrumentation from simple telescopes to spectrographs and wide field scopes. The magazine series is available in good libraries in paper or digital files.
Between the 1920’s and 1940’s some rural farmers, with good technical skill and clear skies, found telescopes, astronomy, and ham radio, excellent pastimes to fill their non-working hours. This is well documented in the articles mentioned above. Some builders document their metal cast equatorial telescope mounts as well as home-built observatories.
I can remember seeing some observatories in rural areas and on a couple of farms.
Summer trips to the shore or wherever.
As a kid, it seemed odd that a farmer would have this really short “silo”, then as I got older, I realized what the door on top was for. Most of them are gone or rusted into oblivion amongst the weeds and blackberry bushes, or are now turned to housing developments and shopping centers.
I even got to visit one of the low wall, roll-back roof sites (they had three permanent mounts), at a private school some 50 years ago.
That one’s long gone also.
Thanks for bringing back some of the better memories of my youth, everyone!
Stellafane is an amazing place, even for non-astronomer makers. Many of the early members worked on the local railroad, so many of the STM observatories have re-used railroad hardware.The Simoni Observatory, home of the Cook-Considine Spectrohelioscope uses a geared circumferential rail to turn the turret. Also the Clubhouse has a built in telescope that is accessed by a rollout roof. My brother is a member having both built a telescope and done over 15 years of volunteer work for the annual conference/star party.
Good folks (even my brother!)
I built my first telescope at about 14 years of age. I reveled in the mechanics but not in making of optics. Luckily my friend, the late Dick Wessling, a great “glass pusher”, made my optics for me. Check out ‘first proze’, Stellafane, 2011.