4 ms·

When I was in high school I spent an entire summer grinding my own mirror out in the barn for a 6" Newtonian telescope. It was the most fun and satisfying proje

When I was in high school I spent an entire summer grinding my own mirror out in the barn for a 6" Newtonian telescope. It was the most fun and satisfying project a kid can do. I bought the mirror blanks and basic parts from a mail order company (it was 1972) called Edmunds Scientific. They are still in business but they sell toys now, they have a serious branch https://www.edmundoptics.com/ https://www.edmundoptics.com/ but I don't think very many people grind their own mirrors any more.

macintux 6y ago
The Edmunds Scientific and Barnes & Noble catalogs were two of the highlights of my youth. I never ordered anything from them, don’t know if my parents ever did, but it was such a pleasure to peruse them.
- localhost 6y ago
  A slightly more pedestrian catalog was Radio Shack. And while researching this answer, I just discovered that the Internet has archived all the Radio Shack catalogs. Here's one page listing capacitors from 1979.[1] The great folks at archive.org have archived a ridiculous number of these catalogs (and even books like Lance Leventhal's classic Z80 Assembly Language Programming! [2]) [1] http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1979/hr098.html http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1979/hr098.html [2] https://archive.org/details/Z-80_Assembly_Language_Programming_1979_Leventhal https://archive.org/details/Z-80_Assembly_Language_Programmi...
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    Those were much more than just catalogs, they were sources for ideas.
analog31 6y ago
In a recent conversation with someone at Edmund Optics, I told him that I missed their old surplus catalog. He admitted that he did too. For surplus and oddball optics, I also recommend Surplus Shed. Talking to some amateur astronomers, it seems that a lot of the interest has shifted to what can be done with a decent scope, digital camera, and software.
perl4ever 6y ago
A lot of people who didn't build their own got one of these from Edmund Scientific: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroscan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroscan

macintux 6y ago

The Edmunds Scientific and Barnes & Noble catalogs were two of the highlights of my youth. I never ordered anything from them, don’t know if my parents ever did, but it was such a pleasure to peruse them.

localhost 6y ago
A slightly more pedestrian catalog was Radio Shack. And while researching this answer, I just discovered that the Internet has archived all the Radio Shack catalogs. Here's one page listing capacitors from 1979.[1] The great folks at archive.org have archived a ridiculous number of these catalogs (and even books like Lance Leventhal's classic Z80 Assembly Language Programming! [2]) [1] http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1979/hr098.html http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1979/hr098.html [2] https://archive.org/details/Z-80_Assembly_Language_Programming_1979_Leventhal https://archive.org/details/Z-80_Assembly_Language_Programmi...
- jacquesm 6y ago
  Those were much more than just catalogs, they were sources for ideas.

analog31 6y ago

In a recent conversation with someone at Edmund Optics, I told him that I missed their old surplus catalog. He admitted that he did too. For surplus and oddball optics, I also recommend Surplus Shed. Talking to some amateur astronomers, it seems that a lot of the interest has shifted to what can be done with a decent scope, digital camera, and software.

perl4ever 6y ago

A lot of people who didn't build their own got one of these from Edmund Scientific: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroscan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroscan