Re: [ATM] the future of amateur telescope making and amateur astronomy

[Barry Keeney <barryk@chaoscon.com>]

    I see this slowly shrinking to a small group who love the art
of making optics/mirrors. 

    I made my 8" scope (http://www.la.unm.edu/~keeney/telescope/)
about 7 years ago for two basic reasons. First I'm cheap, I'd 
rather spend less cash if I can get more with extra work. Second, I 
pickup hobbies for a while and walk away sometimes never returning. 
If I made my own scope I'd more likely stay with it. 

    Cost is fast becoming less of an issue for sky watching. It's
cheaper to buy a 6" scope then to make one. It might not be as
good as some of the ones we have made, or last as long but it
won't take as long to get into sky watching. I've put in a lot more
money into the hobbie since then, but you've gotta take that
first step. My scope, without the focuser, cost well under $200.
But add in the $145 for the focuser, $175 for 3 eyepieces, barlow
and I'm pretty close to a Orion, Meade, etc 8", if not over.
Until you step up to larger sizes, it's not as cost effective
to make your own as it once was.

    Don't forget a big part of the problem a scope is finding
something to look at. The first scope I ever used was a small 
refractor and sure I saw stars but I couldn't even find any planets
(if any were up) let alone anything else. I could make out Orion, 
once I knew where and what it was, but is was pretty dim with
the sky glow of the city I grew up in (Albuquerque) and it's
only getting worse. The new GoTo scopes solve the problem of finding
stuff you can't see the sky to find. I slowly learned to find stuff, 
in part by taking a astronomy class at the local university, and I can
star hop with ease now. I've seen all the planets except of pluto
with my scope, star hopping.

   Without local groups helping newbies it's likely to shrink.
At our local club, I'm the only person who brings a homemade
scope. Everyone else has $2000-$3000+ meade's, etc scopes that
scare some of the public that come out to the local star
parties. I was lucky to meet a guy at one of them who knew how
to make mirrors and helped me make mine. Without his help I would
have never tried. Even he doesn't come by as much and hasn't
had his 50th wave 12.5" scope at a party in 3+ years if 
he does show. (Yup it's a 50th wave mirror - goverment supplus,
gotta love goverment waste..... sometimes...)

   I'm lucky to live in a place with great skys, away from the 
big cities, but fewer people come out for the star parties. Fewer
club members bring their scopes to them. It's kind of sad. Add
to the fact there is *NOTHING* to do in the small town I now 
live in. Come 8-9pm everything is closed, except the local movie
theater (last showing week nights is 7:30pm!) and still the numbers
are shrinking. Sure a local news story about mars so close you can 
touch it or a bright comit helps but only for that month's
party. I haven't heard a new club members voice in a long time. (I still
don't know some of the regulars faces yet. :^)

   The "gee-wiz" factor is fading. My ex-wife never got into coming
out for the once a month parties and my current girlfriend is likely
to stop coming as well. "Stars, that's nice, I've seen stars before..." 
Hubble pictures have built up a false idea of what you'll see in
a telescope. "Is that it?" Little kids still love looking, but high
school, late teens thru late 20's don't seem to "WOW!" as much as 
they used too.

   I see it shrinking in the long run, but moving to larger sizes,
The one place where ATM has a bright future. One's you just can't
buy. 18", 20" even 30" and above are where the hobbie is going. This is
where you just can't get better then homemade! Coating and figuring are
major problems, but the materials are getting cheaper or better ways to
work with older stuff like plain old glass are making them possible for
everyday gals/guys. Once I finish my 12.5" scope (sitting untouch for
over a year), I'd like to move next to something 20" or larger. But I'm
cheap so I'm always keeping my eyes open for mirror material in my price
range long before I'll ready to use it.  

   With the internet, It's now easier to add features like motors
and computer control because people who know about such things 
are putting up the info. I might convert my scope to remote control
and let my computer take pictures all night, I just need a little
help with the electronics, hardware and maybe someone with a 
machine shop. I've got the computers, Lots of computers....

  More remote controlled scopes means the amateur can provide more
to the professional astronomer by providing data for projects
that don't need 10 meter scopes, like the search near earth objects 
and other small bodies. We might even provide the computer resources
to process some of the data as well, like with SETI.

  

Barry Keeney
email barryk@chaoscon.com

"Rap is Square Dancing gone terribly, terribly Wrong...." 

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