BAS Online session : Ameatur Telescope Making

[Vishwanath S K]

Hello All,

This Sunday, we are bringing you yet another session on Astronomy. This time, the focus will be on Amateur Telescope Making.

The session will be conducted by Nikolas Hericks, from Frankfurt, Germany, a long time member of BAS and has written many quality posts on Telescope making on BAS google groups.

Time : Sunday 25th October, 2020 2:30PM IST
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81278882627
Meeting ID: 812 7888 2627

The agenda for the session is as follows:

Why should I make my own telescope, pros and cons.

Which designs can be built by amateurs, again pros and cons.
-Newton
-Tilted Mirror
-Cassegrain
-Others

How long does it take, what do you need, materials, tools, etc.
making lenses (quick overview only)
making convex mirrors
making concave mirrors
making flat mirrors


Testing:

Foucault
-Couder-mask
Interferometry
-Contact
-Common path

Others
-Ronchi
-Null Tests
-Star Tests

No registration is required everyone are welcome.
Please feel free to extend this invitation to anyone you would like to join

Thanks.

[Asif]

I have my opinion and hope BAS admins will allow me to express.

As I read about this upcoming online ATM session, it struck to my mind whether it is really going to help ATMs in India?

When I started making my telescope, no information of making a reflector telescope was openly available in India and this is virtually still the same condition. Only information available online was PN Shankar’s How to Build a Telescope and Amateur Telescope Making by Arvind Paranjpye (Both of which I consider outdated now).

Why it is still tough to get good reliable information when BAS, ABAA, IUCAA and other organizations are doing ATM workshop in India for so long? 

If you ask a single question, from where to procure the glass blanks, grits, pitch, polishing materials, does anybody really get a reliable information? For a question on mirror aluminizing, some people ask them to contact personally rather than sharing actual vendor name or resource who can do it. Has personal business interests of few spoiled the ATM hobby in India? It’s a question for every ATM expert in India to reflect upon.

BAS need to question itself that whatever this session will tell Indian ATM’s…

1.       Where Mirror blanks can be procured in India?

2.       From where to get grits, pitch, polishing materials in India?

3.       Where to have the aluminizing done in India?

I have personally no complain about knowledge and expertise of Nikolas Hericks, but I think you need to engage an Indian ATM expert to help Indian telescope makers. There are many experts in India I know, and BAS too must be knowing. They may have difference in opinion but bring best of them on your platform. It is highly required that Indian ATM’s know where to get the mirror making resources locally otherwise no training session is going to help anyone. Also to Indian experts, please keep aside your business interests and share you knowledge about ATM. It has not helped Indian ATM community so far and will not help in future too if this attitude continues. There is nothing secretive in telescope/mirror making.

Lastly, I apologize If I sounded rude from what I have written. My intention was to express my mind and probably mind of others who struggle to make a telescope in India.

If we are really serious, then let’s make amateur telescope making a simple and easy to access hobby for everyone in India.

 

Best Regards,

Asif Khan

https://astrokhan.wordpress.com/

[Rasik Mhatre]

For your information Nickolas started building his telescope in India with parts procured from the Bangalore market area courtesy his driver! 

Rasik Mhatre
+91-7798466222
+91-8080652745

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[keerthi kiran]

Hi Asif,

I do understand what you are trying to say. 

But in the last 10 yrars, we at BAS have not done any work on telescope making. 

This is the first time we are conducting an online session on telescope making. This is a part of the regular online sessions that we have been conducting since March this year. We have been covering all aspects of amateur astronomy including visual observation, astrophotography, astrophotography, DIY and now telescope making. 

We really want to continue the sessions for years to come and we will definitely invite Indian telescope makers to share their knowledge with us. 

As per the "secrecy" and other stuff, we don't believe in it at BAS. We find joy in sharing our knowledge and learning from one another. 

Thanks and regards,

Keerthi

On Thu, 22 Oct, 2020, 20:49 Asif, <asifkh...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Shakir Bilal]

I am in agreement with Mr Asif. I am interested in making a telescope for myself from scratch but do not know where to start and where to buy those basic things in India (even DELHI) as Mr Asif is mentioning. 

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[keerthi kiran]

You are right. I'm also finding it hard to find the necessary material for telescope making. 

We definitely need to find locally available material for telescope making. 

Asif himself has created a wonderful blog and sharing the telescope making stories from all over india, which is a great initiative. 

Similarly we definitely need to have more and more articles and sources of materials for telescope making. 

Thanks and regards,

Keerthi

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[Sanath Kumar]

Hi all,

          good points asif ji, adding to the points above, we can probably have a word or excel file which any BAS member can update and add names of suppliers for raw materials, this can be a good resource that can be used by everyone. details can include.

1) name of the supplier 

2) what is available with them 

3) minimum order quantity and price 

4) alternative source supplier.

Something similar exists in the famous book " the dobsonion telescope" where they mention USA specific suppliers.

Sent from my iPhone

On 22-Oct-2020, at 21:27, keerthi kiran <info...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[astrosathya]

i'll second sanath on this. If a link can be shared on Google docs, we can all pitch in.

Thanks and Regards

Sathyakumar Sharma,

Founder & Partner,

Universal Immersive Media and Education,

Bangalore. 

in...@uime.in

www.uime.in

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[Asif]

Hi Keerthi,

Thanks for acknowledging the common concerns. Hope BAS will address these concerns going onwards as it has greater reach to Indian ATM community. Looking forward for future training/outreach sessions which will benefit to all.

Thanks,

Asif

https://astrokhan.wordpress.com/

[Asif]

Hi Sanath,

I will not suggest using an excel. A webpage on BAS site will be a better option. 

 My reason for not using excel is that google may not index the excel effectivity. So if someone will google, "mirror kit suppliers in india" or "aluminizing vendors in india", google may not take them directly to excel. You can now understand why I am suggesting a webpage because it can be optimized better for SEO with meta tags. 

We should also bring vendors on BAS platform so they know that they can put their details on BAS website and will have a direct reach to Indian ATM community. BAS should also allow user feedback for vendors so there is clear transparency. 

Thanks,

Asif

https://astrokhan.wordpress.com/

[Sanath Kumar]

Hi Asif, 

           yes sure, that works.

@Akarsh: can you support for this. I haven’t used BAS site much recently, but i know you maintain it.

Regards,
Sanath Kumar

………………….
Sent from OS-X

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[Akarsh Simha]

Am Fr., 23. Okt. 2020 um 03:13 Uhr schrieb Sanath Kumar <25sa...@gmail.com>:

Hi Asif, 

           yes sure, that works.

@Akarsh: can you support for this. I haven’t used BAS site much recently, but i know you maintain it.

No, currently, all I can support is a static HTML page. If anyone is willing to create a document etc, I can always link to it. Eg: If someone creates the spreadsheet on Google Sheets, I can link to it on the static HTML page.

(Also, if someone wants to replace and maintain the present website, I have no problem pointing the DNS records appropriately. I just request that they find a replacement if they are not able to maintain it anymore. In my experience, a simple static HTML page is easy to maintain and does not rely on domain knowledge, whereby it is easy to pass over the baton.)

Regards

Akarsh

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[Vishwanath S K]

Session starting in another 5 mins.

[Sunil G.R.]

Is this session recorded? If so link please.

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[Vishwanath S K]

https://youtu.be/bGm_O4r7MBM

Regards,
Vishwanath S K

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