Stockton Astronomical Society

ATM Page

Jeff Baldwin

The Stockton Astronomical Society holds an Amateur Telescope Makers (ATM) workshop each month in the garage at Jeff Baldwin’s house at 684 Pioneer Ave. in Lathrop, California. This is usually done on a Saturday nearest the Full Moon, and we usually meet from 10 AM until 3 PM. There is no prerequisite skill level or experience needed, and the attendees range from brand spanking new to old and experienced. Telescope projects range from around 4” in aperture up to and including at least 40” in aperture. Some of us are building telescopes, some are grinding and polishing mirrors, some of us are repairing telescopes, some of us are watching, learning and just hanging out. There are individual skills that participants can harvest off of others, and between all of us we usually solve any problem facing us regarding telescopes and astronomical optics.

Our next ATM session will be Saturday, October 22nd from 10AM until 2PM. We meet at Baldwin’s Shop at 684 Pioneer Avenue in Lathrop, CA.

Please enjoy the individual links. This site is a work in progress, so check back once in a while to see if things have changed. These sites are in order that would produce a telescope mirror, so you can either check them out in order or jump to whichever topic you need to see.

Select a Project

Stress Test

Curve Generate

Water Jet Glass Cutting

Making Tools

Couse Grinding

Spherometers

Pitch Laps

Polishing

Tests for Astigmatism

Machine Mirror Making

Test Stands

Test Jigs

Figuring

Ronchi Test

Star Test

Bath and Fizeau Interferometry

Slit Image Test Invented by Bill Thomas

SIT Videos

Making Flats and Secondary Mirrors

Flat Testing

Collimating Your Telescope

Binocular Telescope Mirror Matching Process

Wheelchair Telescope

Polar Alignment

Stellafane

Pheng Vang’s Senior Project