Dobson Telescope-Making Class Will Be Held in Monmouth
June 11 - Pre-Class meeting
July 2 - 7 - 9 - 14 -16 - 21 - 23 - 28 - 30 are the Class Dates

Astronomer John Dobson will be hosting his annual telescope-making class in Monmouth throughout July. The class will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 2-30 and will teach participants to make their own top-quality telescope which will be powerful enough to see the rings of Saturn, some of the moons and atmospheric bands of Jupiter, and details of craters on the Moon.

A pre-class meeting will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 11, for registration, handing out instructions, and questions and answers. The first day of the class, July 2, will feature rough-grinding of the mirrors.

Dobson, who will be 95 this year, is the designer of the Dobsonian telescope and founder of Sidewalk Astronomers, an organization that takes telescope to supermarket parking lots and other locations where the public can view the night sky. The Dobsonian telescope is essentially a Newtonian reflecting telescope resting in a plywood frame, like a canon mount, which is more stable and easier to use than a tripod support. The largest telescopes in the world, such as the twin Kecks on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, use the Dobsonian design.

During the class students will learn to rough grind and polish their own mirror; construct the box and tube out of plywood, cardboard
construction tubes (used for pouring concrete columns), and other inexpensive materials; and read and correct their mirrors for any
defects. Most students make 10-inch telescopes which are 5 to 6 feet long. Also available are 8-inch and 12.5-inch mirrors.

The cost of the class is $130, with mirror blanks and materials bringing the total cost of a finished 10-inch telescope to around $400. A set of 2-inch thick Pyrex mirror blanks (two are needed to grind and polish a mirror) is $200; other expenses will be a diagonal mirror (about $35) and coating the finished mirror with a reflective coating (about $40).

For more information or to pre-register contact Garth Eliassen at (503) 838-5697 (preferred) or e-mail eliassen@ados.net.

Please note that this class is NOT sponsored by RCA, but the information is provided as a public service.