The Amateur's Telescope

by
Wm. F.A. Ellison

cover frontispiece prefatory

This is a scanned version of the 1920 edition of Ellison's The Amateur's Telescope. It contains corrections and amendments in Ellison's own hand presumably in preparation for the 1932 edition.


This 1920 version is being provided on-line free of charge as part of the Observatory's wider educational and charitable objectives, but those who plan to download it (or a significant part of it) for their own use are asked to consider making a small donation to the Armagh Observatory by way of exchange.

 
Contents
Chapterpage
I. Introductory - Literature 11
II. Tools and Materials - Edging - Rough Grinding 13
III. Testing; Foucault's Shadow Test 22
IV. Polishing 28
V. Figuring - Parabolising by Graduating Facets - The Small Polisher System - Parabolising by Overhang - Working Uphill 33
VI. How to Recognise the Paraboloid - Zonal Testing 40
VII. Silvering - To Prepare the Mirror for Silvering - To Prepare the Bath - To Polish the Film - A Few Hints - Care of Film 46
VIII. The Achromatic Object Glass - Calculating Curves, First Principle - Second Principle 55
IX. Practical. Shaping and Grinding - Polishing 63
X. Testing and Figuring 68
XI. Testing and Figuring 71
XII. The Flat or Diagonal Plane - Cutting out a Plane 74
XIII. Mounting Lenses and Mirrors 78
XIV. Reflector Tubes 82
XV. The Flat Cell and Suspension 88
XVI. Stands 91
XVII. The Observatory 96
XVIII. The Observatory 100
XIX. The Observatory 104
XX. Eyepieces 107

Complete book - 130MB PDF file

See also:
Patrick Moore's History of Armagh Observatory

John Butler's Short History of Armagh Observatory

Last Revised: 2009 November 10th