Once Upon a Time.

[barkis]

I was clearing out a cupboard to make space for the flight cases I've filled with Astro stuff, and I found this old Choice magazine. I sent in a little article, as they had requested astronomy related stories in a previous issue. This was from July 1999.

Ron. :oops:

(click to enlarge)

[MikeP]

Crikey Ron, 15 telescopes! When I was thinking of quitting work, I decided I would make one, but when it came to it, the effort and mess involved versus the low cost of good quality cheap scopes put me off. I'm really impressed with what you have achieved.

What have you done with them all?

Mike

[Naz]

Excellent article Ron, how did you find the time to build so many scopes?

Archie

[legion48]

Very impressive Ron.

[Sam]

Ron - that's quite an effort! great article.

Sam

[CELESCOPE]

Fantastic Ron , wow ,hands of a skilled craftsman eh , super article Ron , so u are famous then, heheheheh

nice one mate

Rog

[barkis]

I only did this to please the Mrs. We didn't subscribe to this mag, a subscription was bought for us by a good friend, who was going back to live in Sheffield after he lost his wife.

My wife thought it would be nice to write something, as the Mag. had requested amateur astronomers to do a piece for the following Month. Hence what you see.

15 scopes sounds a lot, but most of them were made spherical, at f8. That's not to make light of the sphere, still a difficult figure do get decent. Those ranged from 4" to 6".

The 8" to 14" were sold, but very cheaply. The rest were dissipated amongst anyone who wanted one. I was given a load of Pyrex blanks by a local college, who's science teacher

had started a mirror making course. The number of blanks left was an indication of how much interest that subject generated

I do not think there is the level of interest anymore in the UK. It still seems to flourish in the States, but I think they go for the more sophisticated configurations.

The simple Newtonian may not seem flash, although they are very well constructed these days. To me they are great system, simple optical train, and very rewarding in performance.

The long focus Newt. takes a lot of beating whatever it is used on.

Enough of this boring twaddle.

Ron.

[rawhead]

Enough of this boring twaddle

Not boring at all!

Very interesting in fact

Cheers Ron

[barkis]

Excellent article Ron, how did you find the time to build so many scopes?

Archie

It took over my life virtually Archie. I would work till the early hours some times. I built a machine too. That saved endless trips around the oil drum stand. Surprising also how the shoulders filled out pushing lumps of glass back and forth for weeks on end.

I retired early too, that gave me plenty of time to cope.

[anthony]

Very interesting to hear about your time/experience with mirror/scope construction. Sounds like high reward for the effort invested.

Anthony