RE: ATM Demise

["Bass, Bill" <bbass@LibertyCorp.com>]

On the various comments on this thread, I thought I 
would add my 0.02 dollars worth.

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My interest in science and particularly in astronomy
seems to have been something I was born with.  No one
else in my family shared these interests in my youth.  
None of my elementary school teachers cultivated any
such interests either, but from my earliest memories
I have been interested in all things related to 
science, and acutely interested in astronomy.

I always wanted a telescope, but my parents could
never afford to buy one when I was a child.  As I
got old enough to think of buying one myself, I 
gained just enough knowledge of them to know that
the ones that I could afford to buy would not be
of adequate quality to satisfy me.  Consequently,
I never owned a telescope until I relented a 
couple of years ago and bought a Meade "department
store" refractor for my (then 7 year old) daughter,
who also seems to have an instinctual attraction 
to all things scientific.

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I stumbled upon Mel Bartel's motorized Dob page
about a year ago (while searching the internet for
information on how to control stepper motors via
a PC's parallel port), until that fortunate day,
I had never even dreamed that an ordinary human
being could grind a telescope mirror by hand.  Mel's
web site was an incredible find for me.  Here I was,
39 years old, well educated, yet I didn't have a
clue that what people on this list were doing as a
hobby was possible for mere mortals.

It's not that I didn't pay attention to amateur 
astronomy, I did what most people do... I read the
various major astronomy publications on a semi 
regular basis, that is I picked up a half dozen or
so issues a year from the newsstands.  But I don't
recall ever seeing any articles mentioning grinding
a mirror oneself.  I also never recall reading 
anything which alluded to the fact that the optics
in commercial telescopes were not "state of the art".
Needless to say, I have learned a tremendous amount
from lurking here for a year.  I hope to soon begin 
making an 8 inch mirror to build a "real" telescope
for my daughter and myself.  

The more advanced ATM'ers on this list are a vast
resource of knowledge and experience.  It would serve
the astronomy community very well if some of you could
extend your expertise to the public in written articles.
Perhaps something specifically targeted to get the
attention of people like me, who "don't have a clue"
about ATM'ing but read various astronomy publications.

Another topic for an article that could be very useful
would be something to educate beginners on how to judge
the quality of optics.  It would be very enlightening
in such an article to compare the performance of several
major brands of telescopes with a "good" ATM scope.  I am
sure it would be a real eye opener to many people.

Gary Seronik, an editor of S&T, recently posted to this
list with a call for articles, so speaking as an 
in"duh"vidual, who could have been enlightened by such 
an article in S&T, I plead for those of you who have 
the knowledge and experience in "pushing glass" and
building telescopes to take up the challenge of putting
it to paper.

If you have had the patience to read this I thank you.
Please pardon me for being long-winded, I seem to have
written quite a bit more than I intended to.

Bill Bass (bbass@bigfoot.com)
Sr. Consultant Programmer/Analyst
Advanced Technology Systems Inc.
Greenville, South Carolina, USA