Today's Task - Not Directly Valkyrie Related

[carolinarider09]

As some of you may kinow, one of my "hobbies" back in the 1990's was astronomy. 

I have been interested in the sky and stars since I was in the 5th or 6th grade but, never got real telescope until the 1990's.

I built, from scratch, (well the mirror glass was something I bought already rounded and flat) four telescopes.  They were all Newtonians and I really loved to share the views with others. 

I had two "desires".  First was to share the views with others.  Second was to take pictures (Astrophotos) so I could share the views with others who were not in the field with me. 

The last telescope I built was a 24" f/4 Newtonian telescope using a Dobson mount.  The only parts that I had to purchase were the focuser, Telerad "finder", the diagonal mirror, and the diagonal mirror mount.

Someone at the nuke plant I worked at back then helped me weld the main mirror mount.  But, other that that, I think It was alll mine.

Our Church, St Lukes Lutheran, that we started attending back in late  of 2024, had a program one day after the Church Service.  It was called St. Luke's Got Talent. 

I think the Pastor, when he phrased the "event" was thinking of all of the members that played musical instruments or had excellent voices.  But, I asked Pastor Jason if I could do a show and tell on Amateur Telescope Making.  He said OK. So....

I brought in my 10" f/5.0 telescope and had it up on the area just in front of the altar for all to see. 

I thought it went over well, but I was surprised when the Pastor asked me if I wanted to do a presentation on Amateur Astronomy and telescopes at the Lutheran Men's meeting. 

After a couple of delays, the date was set for this coming Monday, (November 10) at 7:00 PM.  That is good because it will be dark then (daylight savings time is gone) and we just might be able to see some things in sky (if the sky is clear). 

So, today, I got two telescopes ready to take to the Church this Monday. 

One is the same 10" f/5.0 I showed at the St Lukes Has talent "thing". 

The other is a 24" f/4.0 telescope.

Both telescope mirrors were ground and polished my me, using the standard tools used by amateurs around the world. 

Grinding and polishing a telescope primary mirror is not hard, just takes some time and attention to detail.

For both mirrors a 55 gallon drum half full of water was the platform on which the "grinding" and "polishing" took place.  While it's not a "piece of cake" to grind and polish glass, it just takes following some basic rules. 

Just a note, if you rub (grind) to pieces of glass (one on top of the other) you will get one of two final surfaces.  Something that is flat or something that is spherical.  The spherical is what you want for the telescope.   

And you can build a simple testing device using a tin spice can (empty) three razor blades, and a platform the allows you to move one razor blade forward and after and of course a lamp inside the spice can (Also know as a Foucault Tester). 

Here are two pictures. The first is the 10" f/5.0 telescope on a Dobson Mount (again easy to build just need some teflon strips and some vinyl flooring material that has been tested over the years to work well).

The 10" mirrored scope is about 60" high. 



The second is the 24" f/4.0 Telescope.  It does measure about eight ( feet from ground to top of the telescope (but I have never really measured it.). Oh, and a ladder is required to access the 24" telescope's eyepiece in 90% of the cases.



I hope I did not bore you with this but I wanted to share it because I have always really enjoyed Amateur Astronomy. 

Some photos I have taken with the telescopes I have made.  The first is a 35mm color film image.  You have to guide the scope fro 40 or so minutes to get a good image.  This is of the Orion Nebula in the constellation Orion. 



The second image is M-51 also called the Whirlpool Galaxy. It was taken using a CCD Camera that I purchased and built. 

[Rams]

Very Cool Hobby!   

Rams 

[bassman]

Wow.  Very nice pictures.  Well done.  I've always been intrigued by space - stars/planets etc. and find the entire thing difficult to understand and grasp.  Years ago I heard an analogy perhaps you could comment on:  It goes something like this - if you go to the beach and grab a handful of sand and toss it in the air, it would represent all the stars/planets that a human sees on a given night (probably with the naked eye).   But, there are more stars/plants etc. in the universal than all the grains of sands from all the beaches, dunes and deserts ion planet earth.  Hard to grasp in my simple mind but fascinating nonetheless.

[carolinarider09]

  It goes something like this - if you go to the beach and grab a handful of sand and toss it in the air, it would represent all the stars/planets that a human sees on a given night (probably with the naked eye).   But, there are more stars/plants etc. in the universal than all the grains of sands from all the beaches, dunes and deserts ion planet earth.  Hard to grasp in my simple mind but fascinating nonetheless.

That is a good example.  There are sort of two thoughts.   One an infinite universe and two a finite universe.  If you select the first option, then we just have to remember what we see at night in the sky is just a very small part of what is out there. 

I always have trouble with the infinite universe.  Hard to accept that there is no ending.   It is something we, as humans, just have to accept as fact.

[bassman]

  It goes something like this - if you go to the beach and grab a handful of sand and toss it in the air, it would represent all the stars/planets that a human sees on a given night (probably with the naked eye).   But, there are more stars/plants etc. in the universal than all the grains of sands from all the beaches, dunes and deserts ion planet earth.  Hard to grasp in my simple mind but fascinating nonetheless.

That is a good example.  There are sort of two thoughts.   One an infinite universe and two a finite universe.  If you select the first option, then we just have to remember what we see at night in the sky is just a very small part of what is out there. 

I always have trouble with the infinite universe.  Hard to accept that there is no ending.   It is something we, as humans, just have to accept as fact.

   Thanks for the reply.

[Jersey mike]

Very cool and very impressive. 

The one you show outside, is that left out permanently or do you wheel it in and out of storage. 

[carolinarider09]

The one you show outside, is that left out permanently or do you wheel it in and out of storage. 

No it is kept inside.  The telescope can be removed from the mount and then placed on a flat surface. 

The bigger one is also taken apart.  The top "thing" is removed (rounded area where the eyepiece is), the eight aluminum rods are removed and placed in a trailer and then the top "thing" is placed in the trailer along with the base where the telescope mirror is mounted.  A wheelbarrow type arrangement is used to move the main mirror around. two wheels and two handles like a wheel barrow.

The bigger telescope was nside because that was where it was when I was cleaning it up for a show and tell. 

Star Parties were a thing back in the 1990's and 2000's (don't know about today).  But here is a picture taken at a star party our local Astronomy Club (Midlands Astronomy Club) hosted .  (Probably late 1990's)

The man in center front was one of the founders of our club in the Midlands of SC.  The telescope in the back of the image (with the black cover) is much like the 24" Dobson shown in my pictures above.

In the center front of the picture and to the left is the telescope I used to take astrophotos.  Since then I transferred that telescope to my observatory and built the 24" for star parties. 



This is the observatory some friends and I built in the early 1990's. 



This is a picture of the telescope that I first used in the observatory.  It has been remounted as shown the first picture above and replaced with the 13.5" reflector (same as the one in the picture just bigger)

[Jersey mike]

I’m impressed…beyond impressed  :cooldude

That is so cool. I hope you get many years of good use and enjoyment out of them and with luck be able to educate some new people, the next generation, about science and space.

Enjoy!!

[RP#62]

Some get the bug at a young age.



RP

[flsix]

Very cool hobby. Is that a retractable roof on the observatory?

[Jersey mike]

I’m kind of curious, did you get a peek at that weird meteor or whatever it was that that had astronomers speculating about a spaceship and was in the news recently?

[RP#62]

If you're ever up around Flagstaff, you'd probably appreciate the Lowell Observatory.

RP

[Hook#3287]

Jim, excellent post. 

Your getting my interest in this hobby going.

Seems like a cool project hobby.

Question.  Does the weather effect the scopes?  Can you use it in below freezing temps w/o issues?

[carolinarider09]

Question.  Does the weather effect the scopes?  Can you use it in below freezing temps w/o issues?

Being from and living in SC, I have not had many star parties where the temperature was below freezing. So, I cannot fully comment on you question. 

I would not have an issue doing some observations below freezing, just make sure you have adequate safety in place around the telescope. 

My 24" scope has heaters on the main mirror but that is mostly for "fog" removal in cold conditions. 

As an aside, the first Comet discovered by someone living and from South Carolina was discovered by Howard Brewington on November 16, 1989.  Howard lived in Newberry, SC (about 7 or 8 miles from my current house). 

Howard moved to southern New Mexico in 1990 to hopefully improve is comet discovery.  The link below talks about him and shows him next to his Pickup Truck with snow on the ground. 

So, I think there is no real problem in using a scope freezing temps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_J._Brewington

One more point, if you are truly interested in getting a telescope to look at stuff in the sky, and you have the time, I suggest you build your own.  Start out with a nice 10" Dobsonian and if you like it, next build a nice sized Dob (maybe 16" or 24") and have some fun.  The methods are the same for both mirrors sizes.  Just takes a little more time.

There is nothing better or more rewarding than to have people sort of lined up to look through you scope at a star party and hear their comments on what that saw.  It is almost always fully rewarding.  Because you look up at the sky and see stars.  You look through the telescope and see galaxies and nebula.