BRUCE MILLS-'scope stuff
The Eyes Have It!
LINKS
Gary Wolanski's Telescopes. The beginning of crafted superlight metal Dobsonian telescopes . Check out his 16".
Bruce Sayre's Telescope Making Site A detailed and comprehensive site on the cutting edge of telescope making.It was a joy when I found this site . His latest projects are elegant and thought provoking . One of the first makers that I'm aware of to pull the main mirror out of the "box" and have it float glorious and unconfined in the open air.
Greg Babcock's 24" 'Scope This was a seminal design in ATM history,and looked as cool as it's possible to be . In fact , Obsession Telescopes , appear to have copied most of Gregs' and Mel Bartels' ideas ( ..without acknowledgement ) and come up with what they call the 'Ultra-Compact Telescope
Mel Bartels is wired . His thoughts are boundless and his telescope's are pioneering devices and look great .
Jan van Gastel builds some nice 'scopes . His trilateral Dob. is , so far as I'm aware , the first European incarnation of Mel Bartels' idea . Jan's 'links' page is probably all you'll ever need .
Stathis Kafalis gives a little more of a European slant on TM . Also a 'real' telescope maker in that he's prepared to grind , polish and figure the glass . Another champion for minimalism.
Obsession Telescopes I've got to put this in as Dave Kriege refined the original , clunking , wooden Dobsonian to a level and degree of attractiveness of fit and finish that made even me a believer . He went on to write the ' build it / do it ' book "The Dobsonian Telescope " , sub headed "A Practical Manual for Building Large Aperture Telescopes" co -authored with Richard Berry . Inspirational .
UK AstroBuySell Almost a daily " look-see " and pocket drainer .
Astromart As ' UKABS ' but mainly for the US market . You'll quickly become a 'familiar' with HM Revenue & Customs .
The Cloud Appreciation Society A little perverse perhaps for a site like this to be recommending the joys of cloud watching when the usual adieu amongst stargazers is " Clear Skies " , but the fact is , particularly for born - detached from reality - idlers such as myself , they're great . Now I've joined a club ! The mellow wit of the site's creator Gavin Pretor-Pinney is one of the best reasons for joining the fight against ' blue sky thinking ' . This site , wonderfully , is not deeply meteorological and earnest .
UK Astro Imaging Forum I'm not an imager but I get to see what the sharpest heads around are doing with their imaging tools . As ever it's mostly all about the amount of time and effort you are willing put into it. ( ...a decent sized inheritance would help too ) Without exception an amiable, uncritical and welcoming group of geeks .
The Hartmann Mask Generator created by Andrew Billyard is a very attractive programme for creating a Scheiner or Hartmann mask for focusing . The work of only a few instants and out of your printer comes a paper template - full size or scale - for cutting the holes or triangles to make your mask in paper, card, Kydex or whatever.
Astronomiser The site of Andy Ellis in Newcastle who puts together a lot of stuff that's necessary but hard jjto find otherwise. A very helpful chap in all ways. The company name says it all for him I think. He's not in it for the money.
Ambermile Engineering The site of Arthur Edwards the creator of the artful lines of the revolutionary Artemis CCD camera.Should you need "That Part" for your 'scope which only you know what it is exactly,then Arthur could probably knock it up for you.
