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Amateur telescope making
Sterrenwacht Almere (only in Dutch)
Arjan te Marvelde's ATM pages
Otte Dobsonian Telescopes and Binocopes
Arie Otte's Dobson Optimalisatie Service (only in Dutch)
Peter Koek: Amateur Telescope Making
Don Peckham's Tensegrity String Telescopes
Andre Heijkoop: 24”ť f3.7 Encased GoTo Dobson
Mel Bartels: a 10.5" f/2.7, 2.4 degree field of view Telescope
Mel Bartels: a 6 inch F/2.8 telescope
Mel Bartels' 13 inch 'zip' Dob, a folding telescope
Mel Bartels: Folding (and sliding) Telescopes
Carl's Astronomy page: Amateur Telescope Making
Martin Maters Astronomy website
Uwe Glahn's 27" Dobsonian
Berthold Hamburger: Telescope Making, Optics and Astronomy
Eric Royer's 14 Inch binocular telescope
Chris Forder's ultra portable 10" travelscope
German ATM wiki, with software
Jerry Oltion: a simple star-test telescope
Rex Kindell's circle cutter (!!)
The Alt-Az Initiative. Publications, references and links
Telescope Making: downloadable issues (under downlods)
Gary Seronik's ATM pages
Dan Gray's 28 inch motorized string Dobsonian telescope
Ross Sakett: Amateur telescope making (single pole Dobsonians)
Jim Miller's 18" f/4 lightweight telescope
Sterrenwacht Almere
Stathis Kafalis' website
Marty's ATM pages
Fork mounted Newtonians (French site)
ATM-site mirror site (by author)
Dale Kellers ATM pages
Mel Bartels: Telescopes and telescope making
Mel Bartels:Trilateral mounted 20 inch f/4.8 newtonian
Mel Bartels: A smaller upper cage
Company
Seven: Astronomical formulae/astronomical formulae for telescopes
Lockwood Custom Optics
AstroSystems products
Antares Optics
Pierre Desvaux's 300 mm travel Dobson
David Vernet's 600 mm f/3.3 Dobsonian
Robert Houdart's 110 cm (43.3") Dobsonian telescope
Arjan te Marvelde's ATM pages
Huygens Optics (Netherlands)
Pharos Optics (Netherlands)
MCM Spécialiste du traitement Optique (France)
Tom Conlin: Plain talk on SudiBalls
Mel Bartels' Oregon starparty 2015 walkabout
Determining Mirror quality
Mel Bartels: rating mirrors
Sebastien Debruyne, David Vernet: Optical Quality and Large Diameters: Check before to buy!
Vladimir Sacek: Effect on Strehlratio of secondary mirror defects
R.F. Royce: Move over P-V and make way for Strehl
John Nichol: Optical Standards
Obsession Telescopes: Optics (scroll down to 'Definitions')
Vladimir Sacek: Telescope Aberrations: Types and causes
Brian Tung: RMS and Strehl ratio
Mirror making
General information, techniques, grinding, polishing
and figuring tools etc.
Silicon Pitch Lap Molds in different (including custom) sizes
Gordon Waite's mirror making video's
Gordon Waite: using a small pitch lap to correct zones
How to use a polishing machine: basic principles (Zambuto method from halfway the page)
Martin Cibulski: Mirror Polishing Simulation
Mel Bartels: CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) or 'polishing is a chemical mechanical process'
The Mirror-o-Matic: Machines, Documentation, Information for ATM's
Berthold Hamburger's Mirror-o-Matic machine, with video's
Polishing machines
Waite Research. Links to mirror making video's
Stellafane: Amateur Telescope making; detailed Mirror Making information !!!
Making a 71 cm f/3 mirror (in German)
John D. Upton: Making a (sub-diameter) Tile-on-Plaster Tool
Mel Bartels: the joy of making mirrors
Mel Bartels: large, thin mirror grinding
Bob May: So you really want to build a Telescope Mirror
Bob May: 'Making a Dental Stone Tool' method of grinding of a mirror
Mike Lockwood: articles about mirror making and mirror making equipment
Stathis Kafalis: Spiegelschleifen-ein Volkssport (in German)
Stathis Kafalis: Spiegelschleif workshop-Materialbestellung (in German)
Reginato telescopes (also pregenerated blanks)
Newport Glass: table of grit sizes
Newport Glass: Optical surfaces (about scratch and dig specifications)
Scratch and dig numbers
Scratch-Dig Optical Surface Specification
His Glassworks: grinding and polishing with a reciprolap (video)
Peter de Baan: Mirror making with circular strokes
Foucault test and testers
Nils Olof Carlin: Designing and calculating Couder screens for Foucault testing
Hans-Heinrich Wenk: VCS, Virtual Couder Screen
Martin Brückner's Foucault Tester
Gunnar Overbeck's Foucault tester
Download Zone masker calculator for Foucault test (Excel)
Bob May: Foucault Testing and testers
Stellafane: Data reduction software
Mauritz Andersson: Holographic Foucault Null Test
CloudyNights: Holographic Foucault Null Test
Interferometry
The Bath interferometer (and how to build one)
George Roberts: Interferogram simulator - how interferograms are affected by mirror diameter, F-ratio, laser wavelength, conic constant and some other factors
Georg Roberts: The Bath store, parts for building a Bath interferometer, including XYZ stage
Michael Koch: Optical Formulas, Interferometry
Dale Eason: how to set up the Bath interferometer (YouTube video)
David Rowe: Interferometry and Fringe Analysis
Vladimir Galagoza's Bath interferometer page
Astrochonum: Bath interferometer feedback
Michael Peck: Optimal separation of mirror and instrumental aberrations
Stephen C. Koehler: Milligan 12.3" (Part I), Interferometry Comparison
Startests - compared to Interferometric Results
Interferometrie und optische Tests (comparisons)
William Beaty: WTF is coherent light (about laser light)
Vladimir Sacek: Zernike aberrations
Lots of info about the Bath interferometer on CloudyNights
Ceravolo: Interferometry and Telescopes
Lyot test (phase contrast test)
Astrosurf: Le test de Lyot par contraste de phase
Testez vos optiques : Le contraste de phase
Other tests
Autocollimation testing
Mel Bartels: Star testing a telescope
A Digital Readout Caustic Tester
Bill Thomas: The Slit Image Test (SIT)
Peter Koek: Waineo Null Test
The ATM's workshop: Testing the Quality of Polish
The ATM's workshop: The matching Ronchi Test
Surface roughness. Measurement, analyses, specification
The Roddier test (in French)
Le test de Roddier (another Roddier test article)
John Sherman: The spot test
Mel Bartels: Artificial star distance calculator
Telescope optics
Vladimir Sacek: Amateur Telescope Optics
Paul Laughton: Telescope Performance Factors Central Obstruction and Wave Error
David Whysong: A calculation of Airy disks for various telescopes
Rene Pascal: Diffraction Patterns of Obstructed Optical Systems
R.F. Royce: Precision optical components
Mauro Da Lio: How different apertures behave under the same seeing
Mauro Da Lio: Aperture masks and seeing
Robert Ariail: Cleaning mirrors with collodion
Mirror cooling
Brian Greer: Understanding thermal behaviour in newtonian reflectors
Brian Greer: Using fans with Newtonian telescopes
Robert Houdart's mirror cooling calculation program
Anthony Wesley: Cooling a 10" Newtonian
Mauro Da Lio: Boundary layer seeing
Mauro Da Lio: Yet another method for cooling mirrors
Mauro Da Lio: mirror deformation as cuased by cooling the mirror
Cloudy Nights discussion about mirror cooling
Mirror supports
David Lewis: PLOP; mirror cell calculator
Robert Houdart: Mirror edge support calculator
Frédéric Géa: Astatic primary mirror supports
FrédéricGéa: Piano wire lateral primary mirror supports
Arjan te Marvelde: Mirror cell induced astigmatism
Robert Houdart's 54 points mirror cell for a 43.3" Dobsonian
Collimating
Steve Smallcombe: Rear View Barlowed Laser Collimation
Brian Greer: Adventures in
collimation
David C. Nicholls: The 'Krupa' collimator revised
Nils Olof Carlin: Collimating
a newtonian telescope
Nils Olof Carlin: Colimating with a holographic laser
Nils Olof Carlin: The YACHT, a new collimating tool.
Nils Olof Carlin: Some collimation myths (strongly recommended)
Nils Olof Carlin: The autocollimator and its reflexions
Cloudy Nights discussion about improved (2-hole) autocollimator
Collimating procedure with 2-hole autocollimator
Don Pensack: Passive Tool Collimation and the Newtonian
Article (in German) in which the collimation of a Kutter telescope is described
Article about a Kutter, with information about collimating it with a laser
Newtonian telescope design pages and programs
Download of H. Otterstedt's Newton design program My Newton
Online diagonal sizing program,
by Mel Bartels
Gary Seronik: Sizing Up the Newtonian Secondary
Arjen te Marvelde: Vignetting in a Newton telescope
Newtonian design planner, by Jim Fly
My spreadsheet for calculating secondary size and illumination of FOV (English)
spreadsheet voor het berekenen van de grootte van de vangspiegel en de verlichting van het beeldveld
Selfmade focusers
My first selfmade Crayford focuser
My second selfmade Crayford focuser
Steve Bedair: Homemade Crayford Style Focuser
Focuser construction
Pieree Desvaux's focuser (scroll down to almost end of page)
(Making) spiders/secondary supports
Jack Brosens: Spikes en Spiders (in Dutch)
Vladimir Sacec: Spider diffraction and apodization
Arjen te Marvelde's wire spider calculation spreedsheet
Harro Treur's wire spider (with banjo string tensioners)
Jens' wire spider and magnetic secondary attachment (scroll down a little)
Equatorial platforms
Dob-Tracker III platform (VNS platform)
André Heijkoop’s equatorial platform
Don Peckham's platform
The McCreary Mount
Building the McCreary Mount
Tom Fangrow: A 'hiss drive' platform
Plat-forme equatoriale (a very low and lightweight platform)
Daniel Restemeier's platform (German)
Scotch mount (Barndoor tracker)
Jeff deTray: Barndoor camera mount
Stephen Tonkin: a hand-driven Scotch mount
Stephen Tonkin: a better barndoor (a double-arm Scotch mount)
Steve Irvine's barndoor mount
Stepper motors and circuits
LiniStepper v1; Microstepping Stepper Motor Driver Kit
D.W. Jones: Control of stepper motors
Stepper motor controller: another drive circuit with parts list
Astro-electronics about stepper motors (commercial)
Binocular mounts
Rex Kindell's paralellogram bino mount
Dennis Simmons' paralellogram bino moiunt
Florian's Binocular Viewing
Accessories: Bino-Mirror
Gary Seronik: Gary’s Easy-Go-Round Binocular Mount
Observing
Mel Bartels: Observing dark nebulae
Martin Maters: The deepsky visibility indicator
The Sky Quality meter
Alvin Huey's Observing guides (Arp galaxies, Abell planetaries and Hickson groups)
Damian Peach: An examination of the effects of optical aberrations, obstruction and seeing on real Planetary images
Uwe Glahn: Deepsky-visuell.de
Website Wolfgang Steinicke
Website Uwe Glahn (in German)
Sterrenkunde; website van Bob Hogeveen
Digitized
Sky Survey
Robert Houdart's telecopic limiting magnitude calculator
Ben
Sugerman's (naked eye) limiting magnitude calculator
Brian Skiff: The brightness of the night sky
Bradley
E. Schaefer: Telescopic limiting magnitudes
Nils
Olof Carlin: About Bradley E. Schaefer: Telescopic limiting Magnitudes
(1990) Nils
Olof Carlin: Another interpretation of the data from Blackwell, H R
(1946): Contrast Thresholds of the Human Eye.
Nils Olof Carlin: Estimating the limiting magnitude of binoculars
Roger N.
Clark: Visual astronomy of the nightsky
Mel Bartels: Visual astronomy, an investigation into the visual Optimum Detection Magnification
José R. Torres: Prediction of visisbility software
The
night sky in the world: maps of artificial night sky brightness
'Blue Marble' Navigator: light polution in Europe
Light polution (part of) Western Europe 2012
Downloadable light pollution maps for European countries
Interesting homepages
Astro hollyday at Stellarzac, France: 800 mm and 1000 mm telescope!
Matthijs' astronomy site
Astroforum (Dutch)
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)
Norbert Schmidt's Astropages
Visual Deep Sky Sterrenkunde, in Nederland en Belgie
Homepage werkgroep
Maan en Planeten (Dutch)
Astrolab
IRIS (Belgium)
Starnights homepage (Dutch)
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