A beautiful Grind

I ran across a box of old books while cleaning up my hangar. In it I found a really ancient book about telescope making for amateurs. Many years have passed since I bought that now old, outdated book written in a quant, old fashioned manner.

What struck me as I leafed through the slightly moldy pages, stuck together in places from a long forgotten leak in the roof, was how clever were those amateurs who contributed to the book. These guys and gals ground their own mirrors and lenses atop oil drums filled with water and tested their hard won creations with kerosene lamps with a pinhole in the chimney to simulate a star, and a razor blade to provide a sharp edge to cut the light revealing imperfections reflected off a glass surface shaped with finer and finer grades of abrasive.

These wizards of improvisation built mounts for their telescopes out of iron pipe sunk into washtubs filled with cement for steadiness and clock drives to follow the stars with hand filed gears powered by a falling weight. Can you imagine? Not a watt of electricity to be found anywhere.

I have no idea what my point is other than admiration for those amateurs and their determination and imagination.

I’m thinking of trying my hand.

Anybody out there built a telescope?