Summer 1999 MIRA Quarterly Newsletter: Looking Up

Summer 1999 Looking Up with Dr. Arthur Babcock, President, ASCC
A large part of the history of amateur astronomy in America is the history of the ATM (amateur telescope making) movement. During the first half of the century, very few telescopes other than small refractors were manufactured for sale to amateurs. It was the ATM series in Scientific American by Albert G. Ingalls and Russell W. Porter, beginning in 1925, that greatly expanded amateur astronomy by teaching thousands of enthusiasts to grind their own mirrors and construct their own mountings. The Riverside Telescope Makers Conference held every Memorial Day weekend in Big Bear, California (at first, the event was held in Riverside, and the name stuck), was founded as a means for ATMers to gather, exchange ideas and show off their inventions. Now that quite sophisticated commercial equipment is widely available, most amateurs do not make their own telescopes. Many enthusiasts attend RTMC primarily to shop, since the major manufacturers and retailers have booths there. But the spirit of invention lives on, as these photos will attest.


The telescope mounting in this photo dates back to the origins of the ATM movement. It is one of the earliest examples of the horseshoe mount, being made in 1931 by H. Page Bailey. The mount was salvaged from a state of decay by Allan Guthmiller and equipped with a modern 20" f/5 Newtonian optical tube. A photo of the mount in its original form may be seen in Amateur Telescope Making, vol. I, p. 452.


A feature of recent RTMC meetings has been telescopes that are as much works of art as optical instruments. This refractor has a beautifully coopered wooden tube of contrasting dark and light hardwoods.


The largest instrument on the field was the "Yard Scope," a 36-inch Dobsonian (the same aperture as MIRA’s research telescope!)


Telescopes ranged from the ornate, such as this large scope with tube and mount constructed of stained and varnished hardwood with brass hardware…


…to this exceedingly simple device, made of PVC plumbing fittings.