[ATM] Guy Brandenberg's telescope making workshop

["Francis J. O'Reilly" <foreilly@bestweb.net>]

I spent an enjoyable Friday evening at Guy Brandenberg's telescope making workshop in Chevy Chase Maryland last week.

The workshop is held at the Chevy Chase Community Center, 5601 Connecticut Ave. NW, Chevy Chase, MD. Take I-95 to I-495, go towards Silver Springs and get off at the Connecticut Avenue exit. Head towards Washington, The workshop is one block past the first Rotary on the left.

There were all told about eight people there pushing glass. Five mirrors were in process. One in rough grinding, two in fine grinding and one in polishing. I showed up with an 8" f/6 to aluminize., Eight inch f/6 seemed to be the order of business for the evening, although there was one Six inch f/8 in process.

We cleaned and aluminized my mirror using a very large vaccuum bell. I am pleased with the results. 

Everyone was quite pleasant and welcoming. My daughter and I stayed at the Holiday Inn for the evening about ten blocks away and enjoyed Washington DC Saturday.

A word to the uninitiated, The streets in Washington DC were laid out in the early 1800's. It is not designed to accomodate automobiles. Traffic stinks and parking on the best of days is far worse than New York City on a bad day. Take the train if possible if you want to do any sightseeing.

I also went to the library of Congress and picked up a couple of articles, both were in The Simthsonian Institution's series known as the "Contributions to Knowledge" This series ran from 1848 until 1969 and is now rare, but the information contained therein can be priceless. I photocopied an article by the original Westchester Amateur Astronomer, and first astrophotographer of the moon, Henry Draper M.D. entitled "On the Construction of a Silvered Glass Telescope Fifteen and a Half Inches in Aperture and it's Use in Astrophotography" dated 1864, published in 1865, when as it was noted, Andrew Johnson was the President of the United States. The othjer article I copied is "On the Modern Reflecting Telescope and the Making and Testing of Optical Mirrors" by George W. Ritchey, much of which was reproduced in ATM volume 1.

I can scan and e-mail these to anyone who would like to accept a Thirty meg file. I may be able to mail some out if demand and postage costs are not too outrageous.

Best to all,

Francis J. O'Reilly
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