Telescope Making

by Paul N. Hasluck
reprinted by Lindsay Publications

Yes, another in the century old Hasluck series. Since WWII building your own telescope meant buying large glass discs and abrasives and waltzing around a barrel to grind the discs into a mirror. Once mounted into a tube, the mirror became a reflecting, or Newtonian, telescope. But not this one.

Here you learn to build a large astronomical refracting telescope with a 3-1/2" objective and a body tube four to five feet long. If you put an erecting eyepiece on it, you can use the scope for terrestrial viewing (for you perverts, that means spying on the neighbor lady). You might want to build the small finding 'scope that sits on top with it's 12" or so long tube.

Contents include: materials for telescope making, making the mounting, making the clasp and clamp. vertical and horizontal slow motions, telescope body, lenses for the telescope, object end, eyepieces, finder and steadying rods, finishing and lacquering, erecting and adjusting the telescope.

This, of course, won't perform like a Newtonian telescope if you're truly interested in astronomy. But it could make a great project if you have a lathe and build it from brass tubes with all the accessories. Lathe or not, you might even be able to adapt the principles to build a scope using some of the huge surplus copy machine lenses I've seen advertised in liquidator's catalogs.

Lots of detail. Interesting info. So build a scope, put it to your eye, put a dead chicken on your shoulder and tell everyone it's a parrot and that you're a pirate! A black eye patch is optional. Get a copy! 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 softcover 160 pages

No. 22849 ...$9.95