HOMEBUILT ~*~” REFLECTOR TELESCOPES By Sam Brown SCIENTIFIC CO.TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Gri fing Your Own Mirror Making A Pitch Lep Polishing Pre-Testing Optics Testing Equipment Testing and Correcting Figuring the Paraboloid Reflecting Telescope Construction Mounting Your Telescope Addendum SBRINTRODUCTION TELESCOPE BUILDING is a hobby any person can enjoy regardless of manual skill or work- shop equipment, The easy way, of course, is to buy your optics and parts ready-made, thereby reducing the job to a simple matter ofassembly. The most satisfaction is obtained when you make some or all of theparts yourself, and the biggest thrill of all is to grind and polish your own mirror. With your own hands you can fashion a glass surface accurate to a millionth of an inch, In precision work mirror grinding is unique in that the high degree of accuracy requiredcan be obtained with the crudest kind of makeshift equipment. All you need is some kind of solid support to hold the work at about waist level. Then if you rub two disks of glass together. one ‘on top of the other with abrasive grains and water between, the top disk will automatically become hollow (concave) while the bottom disk will be- come convex. Since you want a concave mirror, ‘the top disk becomes the mirror, while the lower convex disk is the "tool". If you walkaround the work post while rubbing the two disks together, ‘the glass will wear uniformly all around, pro- ducing a nearly-perfect segment of a sphere for the simple reason this is the one andonly curve which can remain in contact when rubbed together. ‘Most beginners know the rest of the story. By using finer and finer abrasive, you make the sur face smoother and smoother until finally with red rouge it acquires a shining face of gemlike smoothness. In terms of ordinary accuracy, it will be a perfect spherical section, but for the super-precision required in optical work, the 25 millionths it may be inerror becomesanitem of considerable importance. Up to this point, any 12-year old can do the work because the job 6 a routine procedure re- quiring only neatness and thoroughness. Young- sters being what they are, it is not strange that the most common defect is plain, ordinary lack of polish, Providing the mirror hasa good polish, any shape near a sphere will forma good image. Most of the actual work inmakinga first mir- ror of top quality comes in testing and correcting. This is more than just making a stabat parabo- izing: it means that you stick with correcting technique until you acquire the know-how and skill to correct a glass surface with reasonably predictable results. This is a skill you don'tac~ quire by mere reading, Like punching a typ writer, plastering a wall or hitting a golf ball, it takes practice. You can expect uptoa hundred hours of study and practice before you becomean expert glass pusher. [BLING EvEPIECE MAGNIFIES “THE WAGE MUCH THE SAME IEA MAGMEYING GAS Tze gn tits Sa Cs ene BA REAL mace, Liga Bess 0 aac See HERE FOCAL LENGTH OF MIRROR. i400 bok Gta)