11 replies to this topic

[Senex Bibax]

The Internet Archive is a treasure trove of old magazines and books. I have been reading through old issues of Popular Mechanics magazine, and there is a detailed description of the construction of a reflector telescope and EQ mount in the March and April 1961 issues. The scope includes some purchased components, including a Jaegers objective cell and focuser, and a draw tube, diagonal and eyepieces from Edmund Scientific. The scope and mount look very professional, but building them from the plans and instructions requires the use of metalworking machine tools such as a lathe or milling machine.

 

I haven't posted extracts or links because the instructions are spread across diverse pages of two 200+ page PDFs, but a quick search of the Internet Archive should find the issues if anyone is interested.

[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

Telescope making was a very active hobby at that time. The classic three-volume series, "Amateur Telescope Making", edited by Albert G. Ingalls, is also on line and is full of fascinating stuff. It describes build projects for both mechanical and optical parts for everything from simple beginner Newtonians to Schmidt cameras, spectroheliographs and wide-field triplet astrographs.

 

Recommended.

 

Google it.

 

 

Clear sky ...

[Kasmos]

Links:

 

https://archive.org/...e/n215/mode/2up

 

https://archive.org/...e/n199/mode/2up

 

There, was that so hard?

 

Now you don't have to search.

 

[Senex Bibax]

Links:

 

https://archive.org/...e/n215/mode/2up

 

https://archive.org/...e/n199/mode/2up

 

There, was that so hard?

 

Now you don't have to search.

Yes, I know I normally would have, I was a bit pressed for time when I posted.

 

Unfortunately, like most of their articles, they are not on contiguous pages.

 

You can also have fun finding the old ads for Criterion and Edmund Scientific in them...

[mikey cee]

Links:

 

https://archive.org/...e/n215/mode/2up

 

https://archive.org/...e/n199/mode/2up

 

There, was that so hard?

 

Now you don't have to search.

Boy not to hijack a thread but the January issue of PM for 1961 nearly knocked me out. Here was my first Edmund's reflector that I received for Xmas of 1958 on page10. Next on page 90 was my very first scope mom bought me in 1957 a Criterion 75X  refractor!! I still have 2 of them. One in very good condition with the shipping box and instructions. But just look at those magazines. I was just entering HS and 14 years old. We really had good times back then. Look at the literally 1,000's of post war jobs and hobbies people had indicated by the printed page in those publication types. I don't know if PM even prints today. If they did all a person saw would be meh car ads along with how to keep driving with some simpleton automatic AI "thing-a-ma-jig". THEY EVEN HAD FULL PAGES OF MEANIGFUL CONTENT WITH NO ADS!!  Mike

Edited by mikey cee, 10 March 2025 - 12:20 AM.

[Kasmos]

Boy not to hijack a thread but the January issue of PM for 1961 nearly knocked me out. Here was my first Edmund's reflector that I received for Xmas of 1958 on page10. Next on page 90 was my very first scope mom bought me in 1957 a Criterion 75X  refractor!! I still have 2 of them. One in very good condition with the shipping box and instructions. But just look at those magazines. I was just entering HS and 14 years old. We really had good times back then. Look at the literally 1,000's of post war jobs and hobbies people had indicated by the printed page in those publication types. I don't know if PM even prints today. If they did all a person saw would be meh car ads along with how to keep driving with some simpleton automatic AI "thing-a-ma-jig". THEY EVEN HAD FULL PAGES OF MEANIGFUL CONTENT WITH NO ADS!!  Mike

Yeah, That's how it was. I miss those days.

 

BTW, there was many pages per issue. How did they generate so much content?

[Oregon-raybender]

And this is why I love Archive.org. I have found and downloaded so many books

watched videos, movies, old TV shows, etc.... The list of items is many life times

worth.  Please support it.

 

Starry Nights

[RichA]

Links:

 

https://archive.org/...e/n215/mode/2up

 

https://archive.org/...e/n199/mode/2up

 

There, was that so hard?

 

Now you don't have to search.

Need a large screen to read this stuff.  Still prefer books by a wide margin

[Senex Bibax]

Need a large screen to read this stuff.  Still prefer books by a wide margin

I use a 10" tablet.

[Kasmos]

Need a large screen to read this stuff.  Still prefer books by a wide margin

I like the real thing but who's going to have all of this kind of stuff.

Also, there's + and fulll screen tools on these pages so you should be able to enlarge the size of the page/text

[RLK1]

At some point, years, perhaps decades, later, there was also a reasonably detailed article on how to actually grind, polish, and figure a mirror along with a quick and dirty foucault tester.

[Senex Bibax]

At some point, years, perhaps decades, later, there was also a reasonably detailed article on how to actually grind, polish, and figure a mirror along with a quick and dirty foucault tester.

I've seen that, some time in the mid 1960s IIRC