Re: ATM Complete Computerized CCD telescope resources?

[Mel Bartels <mbartels@efn.org>]

There is no single book that covers it all.  Frankly, the subjects are
too involved for any one person to become a big enough expert.

There are many excellent books, the shortest of the short list in my
mind is Texereau for mirror making, Kestner's articles on big mirror
grinding, Berry's telescope making book for small telescope and
dobsonian construction, and Buil's and Berry's books on CCDs.  Trueblood
and Genet's book on computer control is getting pretty long in the
tooth, my webpage on computerized a dob is actually one narrowly focused
deep approach.

I think we are entering an era where material is going to be present in
a number of forms, including books, magazines, webpages, and experts
available online.  Students entering college today cannot conceive of
doing homework and research without a net connection, just as our
generation could not think of reference material without going to the
library.  Days spend in quiet spacious libraries with walls echoing
staccato footsteps are fond but rather distant memories.  In previous
times, I would get a book, carefully read from cover to cover several
times, write a letter or two to the author, receive weeks later a
comprehensive reply about what really worked and didn't work, and then
proceed with my project.  Now, I tend to logon to the net, check for
webpages, post messages asking for help on certain questions, and buy
books more for reference rather than careful word by word reading.  It's
a much faster paced, different world, and I have benefited from it,
especially the experts on the atm list who have repeatedly taken the
time to explain, instruct, and debunk the current hot topics.  The key
now that we can all be web publishers, is to separate the information
that can be relied on from the information that is plain wrong or just
heresay.  Groups like the atm list are valuable filters for this
purpose.

-- 
With Regards, Mel Bartels    Programmer/Analyst, and amateur astronomer
mailto: mbartels@efn.org     homepage: http://www.efn.org/~mbartels
How To Computerize A Dob:
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~mbartels/altaz/altaz.html