Building a telescope, most commonly by grinding, polishing and figuring one's own mirror, as a hobby distinct from buying a finished instrument. Amateur telescope makers pursue it for the technical challenge, for a custom or more affordable instrument than a commercial one, and sometimes to contribute usable optics to real observational or research work. The hobby took its modern shape in the United States in the 1920s, driven by magazine columns that built a whole enthusiast community around home-ground mirrors, and grew further after the Second World War as surplus optical parts became widely available.
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Amateur telescope making developed directly to serve amateur astronomy, supplying hobbyists with instruments built by hand rather than bought.
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1. Amateur Telescope Making (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, hobby classification (Amateur Telescope Making)Quote, Lead section, hobby classification (Amateur Telescope Making)
Amateur Telescope Making (ATM) is a series of three books edited by Albert G.
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