Building or Buying a Telescope
Recommended Resources:
This is the home of sidewalk astronomy:
http://www.sidewalkastronomers.us/
An excellent guide to building a Dobsonian telescope provided by the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/raycash/manualv2.pdf (PDF)
A portal into Dobsonian telescope building provided by Popular Mechanics:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/workshop/4286700.html
The Dobsonian Telescope: A Practical Manual For Building Large Aperture Telescopes. For $29.95, perhaps the most complete guide available:
http://www.willbell.com/TM/dobtel.htm
A very well illustrated step-by-step guide to building an eight inch Dobsonian telescope:
http://www.backyardvoyager.com/newtbuild.html
A detailed guide to building a six or eight inch Dobsonian telescope:
http://www.scopemaking.net/dobson/dobson.htm
A useful and humorous guide to building a Dobsonian telescope:
http://www.moonlightsys.com/atm/
Articles of interest to telescope makers:
http://www.telescopemaking.org/
Mel Bartel’s site has a lot of interesting detail. Don’t be overwhelmed:
http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/tm.html
A comprehensive resource:
http://www.altazinitiative.org/
A reputable telescope supplier:
http://www.telescope.com/control/main/
Another reputable retail option. Mike Peoples supervises telescope sales and is very knowledgeable:
http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=Category&cat1=Binoculars%20%26%20Telescopes
Sky and Telescope Magazine, a good general source for all things astronomical:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/5089276.html