Telescope-Related Publications
and Presentations
Here's a list of articles I have written and presentations I have
given
on topics related to telescope making and mirror making.
The author/presenter is me, unless otherwise noted.
"Fast Optics", presented at the Okie-Tex
Star Party, Wed., Sept. 16, 2009.
Presentation
about the advantages and disadvantages of fast Newtonian telescope
optics, and some of the stories behind how I came to make such large,
fast mirrors.
"Amateur Telescope Making - A Survey of the Craft",
presented at the Okie-Tex Star Party, Wed., Sept.
16, 2009.
A presentation that I do every so often covering
the history of increasingly large telescopes, the history of telescope
making, and an overview of how amateurs build telescopes, the designs
and materials they choose, and other random thoughts that I consider
relevant to a discussion of ATMing.
"Building Faster, High Quality Newtonian
Telescopes", Amateur Astronomy Magazine, Volume 63, Fall 2009.
I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
fast Newtonian telescopes in this medium-length article.
"Bigger, Faster, Better!" by Gary Seronik, Sky and
Telescope Magazine, July 2009.
Gary Seronik discusses fast Newtonian
telescopes, and features my 20" F/3 Starmaster telescope in his monthly
Telescope Workshop column.
"A Travelscope Challenge" by Gary Seronik, Sky and Telescope Magazine,
March 2009.
Gary Seronik describes my 8" F/5.4 travel
telescope in his monthly Telescope Workshop column.
"Large Telescopes, Projects, Trends and Issues",
presented at the Okie-Tex Star
Party, Wed., Oct. 1, 2008.
Presentation about large telescopes and some of
the issues that their builders deal with, such as thermal performance,
mirror support, and trends in construction. Up to date information was
given about Bob
Holmes' 24", 32" and future 48" research telescopes with updated
statistics from him, as well as the 43.4" telescope under
construction by Robert Houdart.
"Optical BS", presented at the Okie-Tex Star Party,
Thurs., Oct. 2., 2008.
After giving a bit of information about my
background, in this talk I explored some of the misconceptions about
optics and optical testing by posing ten questions, the answers to
which are either "True" or "BS". I asked the audience to vote on
which answer is correct, and explained the correct answer. I then
disussed the answers, and finished up by talking about mirror cooling,
quality metrics for optical testing, and issues with some common
optical tests.
"Okie-Tex 2007", Amateur Astronomy Magazine,
Volume 59, Fall 2008.
Describes my experience at my first Okie-Tex Star Party.
"Building and doing research with a 32” and a 24” telescope and
Large telescopes", presented at the Winter Star Party,
Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008.
Presentation about Bob
Holmes' 24" and 32" research telescopes with updated statistics
from him, as well as the 43.4" telescope under
construction by Robert Houdart, which I am making the primary and
secondary mirror
for, and Bob Holmes' proposed 48" F/4 prime-focus telescope.
"Building MBM 30" (updated version), presented by
Mike Lockwood, Mike
Conron, and Bob Nonnemann the Okie-Tex
Star Party, Friday, Oct. 5, 2007.
Describes the making of the 30" mirror and the
construction of the
MBM 30" telescope.
"Construction, observations,
and research using 24" and 32" telescopes",
presented at the Okie-Tex Star Party,
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2007.
This talk uses some presentation materials from
Bob
Holmes, who built the telescope, but also many photos and videos that I
took while making the primary mirror.
I made the primary mirrors for Bob's two telescopes
and assisted with their setup.
"Construction, observations, and research using 24" and 32"
telescopes",
presented at the Indiana
Family Star Party, Saturday, Aug. 11,
2007.
"A Modern Long-Focus Newtonian", Sky and Telescope Magazine,
March 2006.
Describes my 10" F/8.8 scope and its
construction.
"A Portable Large-Aperture Cassegrain", Sky and Telescope Magazine,
October 2006.
Describes my 12.5" F/12.5 classical
Cassegrain and its construction.
"Building an Open-Tubed 12.5" F/12.5 Classical Cassegrain",
July 2005, Cloudy
Nights article.
Details the design and construction of my
Classical Cassegrain,
originally entered in the Cloudy Nights telescope making contest.
"Amateur Telescope Making - A Survey of the Craft",
presented at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Nov. 28th, 2005.
Also presented to the Astronomical Society at
the University of Illinois (UIAS), Feb. 22nd, 2006.
Previous versions of this talk were presented to
UIAS in several previous years, and I update it every year.
"Building MBM 30", presented by Mike Lockwood and
Mike Conron at the second annual Prairie
Skies Star Party, Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2005. Here is a
link to my article about PS2005.
An updated version (as of October 2007) was
presented at the Okie-Tex
Star Party
2007.
"Live Foucault Testing" - I took one of my
testers to Prairie Skies 2006 and 2007 to test mirrors on the
spot. The results ranged from great to very bad.