The Dobsonian Telescope-Kriege and Berry

[dark star]

I tried to order this book from Waterstones. 6 weeks after I paid they told me it is probably unobtainable, they are sending an e-mail to check. I Iooked on Amazon and the cheapest copies are £35-£36 plus postage from the US. Despite the book costing around £20 according to Waterstones. Does anyone know where I can buy this cheaper? I guess if there is a limited supply and high demand it will be expensive? Waterstones said that the last print run was in 1999!

David

[JamesF]

SCS Astro or Green Witch.  I got mine from SCS because we pass the shop going to and from school.  Still took weeks to arrive though

James

[JamesF]

Here you go: http://www.scsastro.co.uk/catalogue/the-dobsonian-telescope.htm

I'd suggest calling them to see if they have stock and if they don't, ask for an approximate delivery time.  Then double that, and expect to have to phone to find out where it is after that.

It's customer service, Jim, but not as we know it.

James

[mapstar]

Hi David

I can't answer the kriege and berry book question but an alternative is the book by Albert highe building portable newtonian telescope's.

It is a lot more up to date although quite a bit more costly and personally I found it dry in places but very informative. Lots of literature on the web too and help here.

Are you thinking of building a dob? I'm just in the process myself and It's a steep learning curve especially when you do things wrong!

[JamesF]

And of course if you are thinking about building a dob, don't forget about http://stellafane.org/

James

[starman345]

Hi David,

You can look here https://www.willbell.com/TM/dobtel.htm  I do know they ship pretty much worldwide but not sure about cost, something you could check out on their site.

[jetstream]

I got mine from Obsession,they will ship to UK for $51.00 USD total for book and postage.Excellent book.

[dark star]

Thanks for all the information. I am around half way through grinding a 14 inch mirror and intend to make a truss dob mount. I will post some pictures of the mirror (and mount) when (if!) I successfully complete the mirror and later the mount. I have buIlt a Foucault tester based on plans on the Stellafane site.

i  am now not sure which to buy, the Kriege and Berry book or the Highe book, I had read about the Highe book before but could not remember the name.

I will think about it. It will be a few weeks (or possibly months!) before I finish the mirror, then I will start on the mount. Having made a 6 inch mirror I know that the hardest part is the figuring and testing, which I still have to do.

David

[Joseki]

I ordered the Albert Highe's book from scsastro, it arrived pretty quickly.  I paid for postage and they presumably just passed the order on to willbell - I think JamesF had to wait because they had to wait until they could combine postage (just a guess).  btw I found the Kriege & Berry book and Highe book complimentary books rather than true alternatives.

"I am around half way through grinding a 14 inch mirror and intend to make a truss dob mount"

just my opinion of course but if you want to build a classic "obsession style dobsonian" get the Kriege & Berry book, if you want to build your scope as an ultraportable you need Albert Highe's book.  Moonlight truss tube components look excellent btw.

Albert Highe's book was interesting (I sold my copy since I'm not up to applying its techniques) in part because he talks about what doesn't work with some of his earlier builds - and because ultralights are engineering towards the limit of the materials it seems more difficult to avoid problems.

[Moonshane]

the K&B book is a great read and very usable for building dobs. they do concentrate on the standard obsession format though, rather than ultra-lights. definitely recommended. I am interested to hear about the other one - may get that too.

[mapstar]

the K&B book is a great read and very usable for building dobs. they do concentrate on the standard obsession format though, rather than ultra-lights. definitely recommended. I am interested to hear about the other one - may get that too.

I'll bring my copy to peak in autumn for you to have a look at shane.Hopefully I'll be bringing my finished dob too.

[Moonshane]

cool, that will be excellent mate