46 replies to this topic

[Starman1]

Great info and links--thanks.

Good memories, too.

[John Carlini]

Thanks for the links! My brother and I used to have hard copies of several books during our high school years. Edmund Scientific publications and equipment were part of our learning environment.

[Oregon-raybender]

Just a reminder. With winter season coming, if you are looking for

books to fill your interest. The Sam Brown books are still available

on the Edmund web site.  Good reads

 

Look for the Archive section, bottom page.

 

Starry Nights

 

https://www.edmundop...cal-literature/

[geovermont]

Just a reminder. With winter season coming, if you are looking for

books to fill your interest. The Sam Brown books are still available

on the Edmund web site.  Good reads

 

Look for the Archive section, bottom page.

 

Starry Nights

 

https://www.edmundop...cal-literature/

Thanks again for getting those on the Edmund website. They're a great resource.

[Astrojensen]

Thanks again for getting those on the Edmund website. They're a great resource.

They really are. I've always wanted "All about Telescopes", but it's very difficult to find a copy in Europe. I've downloaded it, plus the "Sky Guide" and "5 mag Sky Atlas". Not that I need any of it, per se, but it's great to have them to give to beginners. 

 

 

Clear skies!

Thomas, Denmark

[Astrojensen]

I used the high-end printer at work to print "All about Telescopes", the "Mag 5 star Atlas", "Sky Guide", "Telescope Finders" and "The Optical Bench". I put them all in a ring binder, so I now have a 330-page book, crammed to the brim with useful information, some of it very difficult to find anywhere online. Or anywhere else, for that matter. 

 

I will probably need to add the ones on collimation and Ronchi gratings. 

 

 

Clear skies!

Thomas, Denmark

[Oregon-raybender]

Thank you for your comments. I will pass these on to

folks at Edmund.

 

Starry Nights

[geovermont]

I just directed a couple of the students in our mirror-making session to the Edmund site. All About contains a good chapter on mirror making--not up to date, but it gives them a good overview of the process and can be brought more up to date by going to the Springfield Telescope Makers page on Mirror Making.

[Oregon-raybender]

As I noted, some of sections and ideas are a bit dated for today's

telescope making or astronomy, but a good amount is still has

value for newbie or even someone recalling a piece of data

long age forgotten.

 

Thanks for passing on the web site to them. There may more

information that they were not aware of or would later ask about.

 

Starry Nights

[Michael Rapp]

I just found this thread.  Oh wow, reading the Edmund books for the past hour or so....I have been brought back to when I was 8-10 years old in the early 1980s.  Back when astronomy was just utter joy, wonder, and awe.  Thank you ever so much for this effort. 

[geovermont]

One of the things I like about All About is that it makes optical tinkering approachable. Many common optical configurations are well explained and illustrated. The chapter on mirror making and testing makes the subject quite approachable, with an admirable set of illustrations on what the Foucault tester can reveal about the surface and what to do about it.

 

I will say that some of the mountings illustrated are deep into the endlessly wobbly territory. However, even that is OK. If someone builds one opf those shakey things and gets the telescope-making bug, their next one will be better. There are plenty of examples of sturdy mountings out there once the beginner starts realizing that the mounting is almost more important than the optic it carries. And I did say "almost" in that last sentence. Perhaps "as important" might be the term to use. Not sure.

Edited by geovermont, 12 December 2023 - 04:42 PM.

[MitchGallant]

Great post. Thanks for helping to make this information freely accessible.

I recall in the 70s and 80s very fondly reading All About .. and the Mag 5 and Sky Guide books (I still have the last 2). At that time I could only afford a fairly inexpensive 4.5" reflector with the (you guessed it) spindly wooden tripod stand. So I used All About .. p. 107 rigid telescope stand design with galvanized steel plumbing pipe and fittings to make a good stand. So much wonderful technical and accessible info in All About ..

Although I have a fairly nice library of up to date astronomy books (mainly field guides and star maps), I still really enjoy the Mag 5 atlas (the Mag 6 I had .. but misplaced it .. it was a larger format if I recall).

Even today in retirement I enjoy casual observational back-yard astronomy and have found great pleasure in very simple gear (I never really had aperture fever) and find a good recent smartphone (S23 Ultra) provides me with sufficient pleasure to scratch my amateur astronomer photographic itch:

  https://www.jensign....ronomy/S23Ultra

Recently when calculating star separations (using Haversign), I decided to write a web page with a list of 118 brightest stars as a starter collection. I decided to use the table on p33 of Mag 5 Star Atlas and updated the RA and DEC to 2000 (using 2 other sources). I'm sure there are many calculators for this elsewhere, but it was fun so thought I'd share it her:

  https://www.jensign....e/indexDEV.html

Edited by MitchGallant, 15 April 2024 - 03:08 PM.

[Pjmjrastro]

These books were just posted on their web site.

 

Starry Nights

 

https://www.edmundop...g5StarAtlas.pdf

 

https://www.edmundop...undSkyGuide.pdf

FANTASTIC! While we have the latest that technology has to offer available, these publications were, and ARE a treasure trove of information that never gets old, in a simple format and style that anyone can use. What gems!

I have the Sam Brown book, All About Telescopes, but not the others. 
 

THANK YOU!

[Oregon-raybender]

Glad to see that many folks are enjoying the

Sam Brown books. Edmund is very happy to

support this. I give them feedback.

 

I am still working on getting them on archive.org

where they will be there for free access.

 

Starry Nights

[Oregon-raybender]

The past couple of weeks I have received a number of e-mails

on how popular the books have been, quite the uptick.

 

With many publications being brought out or no longer 

offering resources or their magazine. This is good deal for us.

 

So please continue to tell your friends and if you are a member of

a club, offer the suggestion that they announce it in their

newsletter. Thanks

 

Starry Nights  

[MarioHummer]

Boy, this is all F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C! Thank you all for all the posters and links! Thank you Oregon-raybender!

 

I have acquired 'All About Telescopes' and 'Popular Optics' in the early 80's, then still in print, and I still have them. (Yup, I'm 74 now...)

 

I have taught Observational Astrophysics at the undergrad and graduate levels, but these books are kinda must have for the beginner or general reader, regardless of background, who may want to pursue the subject to any extent and in a practical way. I'm not aware of similar books that are in print and can be recommended, despite having received several requests over the decades. As a cosmic coincidence would have it, a few days ago a father asked me about simple projects which his young kids could pursue to develop their interest in Astronomy. Bingo.

 

Best wishes everyone.

[Oregon-raybender]

Thank You, Mario for you kind words. Edmund was open to

putting them on their web site. I relay these positive feed backs

to them, there may be more coming.

 

If some one has a book that is not listed by Sam Brown let me know.

You can send it to me and I'll scan in. Of course I return it. Any support

is important, I don't want these wonderful books to fade away.

Just like noted above they do have a long life.

 

Starry Nights

[Oregon-raybender]

More people are finding these books helpful. I hope this

continues. Thank you for the support, the interest is quite

high. Yes, please let more folks know about this.

 

You will find them in the archive section, bottom page.

 

Starry Nights

 

https://www.edmundop...cal-literature/

[dawnpatrol]

I just became aware of this thread and immediately downloaded All About Telescopes and The Optical Bench. This is a wonderful resource. Thanks for making it happen.

[Paul Paris]

It's two years since the original post and I've just come across these classics ("All About Telescopes", "Edmund 5th Magnitude Star Atlas", etc.) during a lazy stroll through the CN site. What a wonderful find! Lots of good information, and even more good memories. Thank you so much for the effort to get these digitized, and for sharing them with us. 

 

Paul in NC

[Oregon-raybender]

I keep re-posting this because many folks ask

if these books are still available. Yes they are.

 

I am happy to report that they are now available on

on the Internet Archive. Archive.org.  Which

is really great since now they have a long term home

and free to anyone.

 

If you go to "All About Telescopes Sam Brown Edmund"  You will 

see the list of all the books on the left under viewable files, 

17 in total, 16 under zip file.
 
To down load the rest of the books, look for "PDF with text" on the right side 
for download options, select PDF

 

BTW, I found a number of copies going for $50 to $200 at various book

sellers.
 
Starry Nights

 

 

https://archive.org/...out Telescopes/

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by Oregon-raybender, 31 March 2025 - 02:49 PM.

[Oregon-raybender]

I found this interesting articles on Sam Brown

 

Starry Nights

 

https://circuitousro...l#sb-1945-es-ht

 

 

https://www.bay-astr...pesSamBrow1.pdf

Edited by Oregon-raybender, 31 March 2025 - 02:50 PM.