Astronomy Tutorials, Reviews & Plans

Up until fairly recently, there were not many options for people who wanted a telescope. It was even tougher for anyone who wanted a scope beyond eight inches in aperture. Largely because of the exhorbitant cost telescope making in itself became a hobby. John Dobson and his Sidewalk Astronomers group probably did more than anyone else to spread the word.

The goal here is to preserve at least some of that tradition in the hope that those capabilities will be passed on. It seems as if it will last at least through this generation and possibly the next. There are a number of businesses that now sell all of the components one would need to complete telescopes of several different optical configurations. In the case of the various reflector types it is common now to purchase a completed mirror and construct most of the rest from scratch.