I spend a lot of time grinding mirrors, making my own telescopes or smaller parts of equipment. When I started as a young school boy at age of about 14 (a long time ago) this was a necessity. My country was then a part of socialistic federal state of Jugoslavia, and imports from the west were difficult, and very expensive. Some russian and east-german optics was available, but the apertures were small, and the equipment was scarce and very expensive. Not one of my friends, me including, sooner or later became an ATM with wish to provide himself a small telescope. A few stayed ATMs, me including. Althoug I do not grind as much as before, I am still playing with glass from time to time, even if now my country is independent, even if getting anything from abroad is just a question of money, and also, even if now the prices of equipment are much smaller than 40 years ago. I will try to describe at least some of my ATM attempts here, especially if I did something in not a ver usuall way. Maybe someone will find this information usable...
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I started to play with all sky cameras long time ago. However, first practical project was started somewhere in 2000, and this is the result: An ultra-cheap all-sky camera with a top cover as a mirror. More details are here. |