Next Wednesday night, the Bazaar Cafe will host another free “how-to” night, this time teaching attendees how to build their own telescope.
Local amateur astronomer Douglas Smith will explain basic optics, discuss the different types of telescopes and their components, and demonstrate the process of making those components.
Smith recently completed FirstLight — a 16.5″ primary mirror Dobsonian truss-tube telescope which he’ll show off at this year’s Maker Faire. If you just did a “Whaaat?” with that sentence like I did, here’s what a Dobsonian scope is all about:
A Dobsonian telescope is an alt-azimuth mounted newtonian telescope design popularized by the amateur astronomer John Dobson starting in the 1960s. Dobson’s telescopes featured a simplified mechanical design that was easy to manufacture from readily available components to create a large, portable, low-cost telescope. [Wikipedia]
The free class on September 8th begins at 7pm at the Bazaar Cafe at 5927 California near 22nd Avenue. After class, you can also try out Smith’s FirstLight and other telescopes for a little stargazing. Fog permitting of course. 😉
Sarah B.