From the Bookshelf
From the BookshelfHow to Make a Telescope
by Jean Texereau
This is the most important book on my ATM bookshelf and is
considered by many to be the best guide to amateur telescope making in print. While there are many
good books that can assist the ATM in making a telescope, if I could have only one book about
telescope making this would be it. Texereau takes you through the process of planning and
building a first telescope step-by-step. If this book is followed carefully, even the beginning
ATM can produce what Texereau describes as "a telescope optically beyond reproach".
Order How to Make a Telescope
The Dobsonian Telescope: A Practical Manual for Building Large Aperture Telescopes
by David Kriege and Richard Berry
A well-written book detailing the construction
of larger (20 inches/50 cm and above) Dobsonian telescopes. If you're an experienced amateur
telescope maker desiring to build a "light bucket" for deep-sky observing, this is a book
for you.
Order The Dobsonian Telescope
Amateur Telescope Making - Volumes 1, 2, and 3
by Albert G. Ingalls (Editor)
While Albert Ingalls was an editor at Scientific American in the 1920's he
happened to read an article by Russell W. Porter describing the work of The Telescope Makers of Springfield, Vermont. Mr.
Ingalls proceeded to give early amateur telescope making the boost it needed by giving it wide exposure in Scientific
American magazine. This three volume set is the culmination of over 3 decades of articles written for, or inspired by,
those Scientific American articles. In this new edition, the texts (with error correction) of the original three volumes
have been rearranged into more logical groupings. Now many years later, these three volumes are still widely regarded as
the standard by which all amateur telescope making books are measured and I believe these, along with Texereau's How to
Make a Telescope, belong on every telescope maker's bookshelf.
Order Amateur Telescope Making - Volume 1
Order Amateur Telescope Making - Volume 2
Order Amateur Telescope Making - Volume 3
Amateur Telescope Making (Practical Astronomy)
by Stephen F. Tonkin (Editor)
This book is a collection of telescope construction projects by a number of
contributors from around the world. The subjects include (1) "Shoestring" telescopes built for a very modest amount of money,
(2) Specialized telescopes, including a Wright camera and a high-contrast Newtonian for planetary work, (3) Mounts, and
(4) Astrophotography, including building and using a CCD camera. If you're looking for some guidance on building the rest of
the telescope after you've ground or purchased the optics, or you're looking for a new project to tackle, this is a book
for you.
Order Amateur Telescope Making (Practical Astronomy)
Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes: A Manual for Optical Evaluation and Adjustment
by Harold Richard Suiter
So you've built or bought a telescope, or you're contemplating the purchase of a
used telescope and you'd like some way of determining the quality of the optical system? This book will show you how to do
just that. Just as the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, the proof of the telescope's optical system can be determined
by using star tests. In this book the author thoroughly describes, and though the use of photographs, shows you precisely what
the tests reveal about the quality of a telescope.
Order Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes
Making & Enjoying Telescopes: 6 Complete Projects & A Stargazer's Guide
by Robert Miller and Kenneth Wilson
Order Making & Enjoying Telescopes
Telescope Control
by Mark Trueblood and Russell Genet
Order Telescope Control
365 Starry Nights: An Introduction to Astronomy for Every Night of the Year by Chet Raymo
Order 365 Starry Nights
Turn Left at Orion: A Hundred Night Sky Objects to See in a Small Telescope-And How to Find Them
by Dan M. Davis and Guy J. Consolmagno
Order Turn Left at Orion
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer
Order The Backyard Astronomer's Guide
Advanced Amateur Astronomy
by Gerald North
This book provides essential information on telescope optics, the atmosphere,
astrophotography, electronic imaging, and telescope hardware for the established amateur. It includes chapters on photometry,
spectroscopy and radio astronomy and helps bring one's observational astronomy skills to a level where data of real
scientific value can be acquired.
Order Advanced Amateur Astronomy
Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System - Volume 1
by Robert Burnham
Order Burnham's Celestial Handbook - Volume 1
Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System - Volume 2
by Robert Burnham
Order Burnham's Celestial Handbook - Volume 2
Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System - Volume 3
by Robert Burnham
Order Burnham's Celestial Handbook - Volume 3
The Cambridge Star Atlas by Wil Tirion
The Cambridge Star Atlas is
a series of twelve monthly sky charts, followed by an atlas of the whole sky, arranged in 20 overlapping charts. Each chart
shows stars down to magnitude 6.5, together with about 900 nonstellar objects, such as clusters and galaxies, that can be
seen with binoculars or a small telescope. A comprehensive double-page map of the Moon's surface shows craters and other
named features.
Order The Cambridge Star Atlas
The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature
by Ilya Prigogineby and Isabelle Stengers
This book is a marvelous intellectual adventure beginning with the Greeks, through
Newtonian trajectory and deterministic chaos, and onward to the heights of a unified
formulation of quantum theory and "free lunch" cosmology. His dramatic findings
include that quantum mechanics can be extended to demonstrate time's natural irreversibility,
and further, he argues that time actually preceded the Big Bang.
Order The End of Certainty
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
A
wonderful account of this failed moon expedition written by someone who experienced it first hand. If you liked Apollo 13 the feature film,
you'll love this book!
Order Lost Moon
Return to Celestial Wanderings
Last Updated December 31, 1998 by StarWanderer