Jim's Home Planet

Amateur Telescope Making (ATM) is a hobby that combines the craftsman's hands, the artist's eye, and the scavenger's nose. A very fine telescope can be built from almost anything. It is limited only by the maker's creativity and resourcefulness. Few other hobbies can claim the wide variety of technique and style that result in the production of instruments of discovery that will give a lifetime of rewards. I hope this little website will help to light the fire in yet another generation of ATM'ers.

Quick Links

Some old Star Party Reports from WUTS and RMSS
Some Telecopes I've Known
Some Telecopes I've Made
Freebies and Small Projects to Make
Getting Serious about Telescope Making
Some Articles of Interest
Other ATMer's Pages
Solar Observation and Spectroscopy
Astronomy and Space Exploration Links
Electronic Tinkering Help
Parts and Surplus Sources
Weather and Atmospheric

A Few Telescopes I've Known

	The Gregory-Maksutov Telescope Giving credit where due.
	Tim's 10" TriSchiefspiegler
	Marty's 10" Binoculars
	Gary's 30-inch Newtonian

You can see photos of many more home made telescopes at the star party reports pages HERE.

A Few Telescopes I've Made

	A Binocular Mount Designed with Comfort in Mind
	Observatory in a Bag
	A 4-1/4 inch Newtonian
	A 6 inch Newtonian for Christmas
	A 6 inch f/18 Refractor of Unique Origin
	An 8 inch f/16 Cassegrain Built for Rough Roads
	An 8 inch f/20 Windproof Cassegrain (Which Will Withstand the Wildest Winds Wyoming can Wage Without Wiggling)
	A Prototype Spectrohelioscope

Freebies and Small Projects

	Make your own POLAR ALIGNMENT Whizzy-Wheel (A Print-and-Cut Project)
	Print your own Optic Calculator And Polar Alignment (by Star Drift Method) Wallet Card (A Print-and-Cut Project)
	FESS Up Make your own Field Expedient Solar Spectroscope
	Make a Focuser from a $5 Pawn Shop Camera Lens
	Mount Your Digital Camera to Your Telescope Make this adapter for afocal photography

Getting Serious about Telescope Making

	Easy-to-Make Single-piece Crayford-type FOCUSERS
	Making strong, backlash-free Tangent Nuts for your Slow Motion Controls
	Making Worm Gears on the Lathe
	How to Make and Use a Dividing Head
	Cassegrain Baffles and Mirror Cells
	A Home Made Foundry

Articles of Interest

	Celestron C65: Is it worth $70?
	A Quick Primer on Newtonian Telescope Collimation
	How BIG is Your EXIT PUPIL? Avoiding the Low-Power Landmine
	Lens Glue (and UN-gluing)
	Impressions of the great Leonid Meteor Storm of 2001

Some Choice ATM Pages

	Stellafane This is where it all started in North America
	David Stevick's Weird Telescope Page Yolos, Trisheifspieglers, Herrigs, and others.
	Peter Smith's Webpage Excellent ATM Stuff
	Mel Bartel's Telescope Making This the place to start for lghtweight design and computer control of telescopes
	The Amateur Telescope Maker's E-Mail List
	The ATM List Archives Many Year's of ATM Discussions
	The ATM Site An Archive of ATM Articles
	Star Astronomy Telescope Making This gets you to the webring too.

Astronomy and Space Exploration

	Harvard's Astronomical Headlines New Objects and Ephemerides (Just the facts, Ma'am.)
	Orbital Elements for Software Packages
	JPL's Photo Journal
	NASA News
	NASA Real Time Human Spaceflight
	J Track Real Time 3D Model of Earth and Artificial Satellites VERY COOL!
	Devotional Astronomy
	The Astrophysical Journal

Electronic Stuff

	Electronic Parts Datasheets in PDF
	Texas Instruments Logic Chips
	Circuit Archive
	More Circuits...
	David Rowe's Dual Axis Stepper Motor Controller

Some Great Sources for Parts

	At the very top of the list I have to place: Surplus Shed
	Sterling Resale Optics Small but high quality optics re-seller. Excellent service
	Astromart Classifieds The Ebay of Astro Gear
	H. L. Clausing Inc. High Quality Mirror Coatings
	McMaster-Carr Industry's Hardware Store If it's a tool or hardware it's here.
	American Science and Surplus From the Serious to the Sublime
	Willmann-Bell, Inc. Books, Mirror Kits and Supplies
	Rolyn Optics Company Many hard-to-find items, prisms, beamsplitters...
	Newport Richardson Diffraction Gratings
	Newport Glass Optical Glass Manufacturer
	Edmund Optics What the old Edmund became.
	Anchor Optics
	University Optics High quality eyepieces don't have to cost a lot of money. Books and cast mirror cells too.
	Eyepiece Reviews Not a source, but a great asset!
	The Used Telescope Blue Book History and Classifieds

Regarding Solar Observation and Spectroscopy

	SOHO (Solar and Heliosperic Observatory) Live Pictures of the Sun
	The Spectrohelioscope Network Managed by Fredrick Veio and Chris Westland (Get your free PDF copy of Fred's book on SHS construction here.)
	Philippe Rousselle's Spectroheliographic Solar Observation Pages
	The Spectrohelioscope Yahoo! Group
	A Single Lens Reflective Slit Spectrohelioscope

Weather and Atmospheric Links

	The Clear Sky Chart Home Page
	North American Atmospheric Satellite Imagery
	North American Weather Imagery - Closeup!
	Live Doppler Radar
	Vaisala's Lightning Explorer Map
	Wind Speed and Direction Profiler

Contact
(Change AT to @)