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1 Copyright Information We believe that most of the texts and images are in the public domain. We do not own the copyright to the texts and images used in ATM Letters Journal. We have not kept a record of where we found any of the texts and images we have used. If you believe that you own the rights to any of the texts and images we use, please contact us and we will add an acknowledgement. All logos and trademarks in ATM Letters Journal are property of their respective owner.

2 January/February Issue, 2006 A Brief History of Telescope In Focus: Designing and Making Lurie-Houghton Telescope

3 CONTENTS Issue January/February Volume 4 Number 1 Spectrum Robotic Telescopes Advanced telescope techniques. 8 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES Making Lurie-Houghton Newtonian Telescope Building s Report of 5-inch telescope by Aki Lötjönen. 19 PRAXIS 8 Designing Lurie-Houghton Telescope Detailed calculations and design recommendations. 38 BACK TO THEORY LHTCALC Java Script Lurie-Houghton Calculator 48 OPTICAL COMPUTING 19 MODAS 4.2xx New release with valuable changeover under development 49 COMPUTER AND TELESCOPES History A Brief History of Telescopes The telescope is undoubtedly one of the world's most farreaching inventions. For the past four centuries the telescope has stood at the forefront of human discovery. From its humble beginnings in seventeenth-century Holland, when a simple spectacle-maker first presented his invention to his country's military leaders, to today's colossal structures housed in spaceage cathedrals, the telescope has unlocked nature's secrets. The history of the telescope is a rich story of human ingenuity and perseverance involving some of the most colorful figures of the scientific world - Galileo, Johann Kepler, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, George Ellery Hale, and Edwin Hubble BIBLIOGRAPHY Contents ATM Digest OPTICS ABC UPDATE GALLERY ATTACHED NEXT ISSUE ADVERTISMENT ON THE COVER Fortune: This picture was made by the Bulgarian amateur astronomer and telescope maker Pencho Markishki ( markishky@yahoo.com). Hi is also advanced astro photograph, that reached great success with his very simple optics. More innovative photos can be seen on his home page at following url.: Image Credit: Pencho Markishki

4 Hubble 15 Years of Discovery July/August March/April Issue, Bibliography: James Short, Europe s foremost maker of Reflecting Telescopes In Focus: Trigonometric and Coddington Raytrace

5 CONTENTS Issue March/April Volume 4 Number 2 Spectrum Hubble 15 Years of Discovery Advanced telescope techniques. 3 SPACE OPTICS Cleaning Optics If it's not dirty, don't clean it. 23 OPTICS ABC Trigonometric and Coddington Raytrace Aberrations and Raytracing BACK TO THEORY TRIGON.BAS, CODDING.BAS Trigonometric and Coddington raytrace. 33 OPTICAL COMPUTING DiffCalc Simulation of diffraction limited star and CCD images. 37 COMPUTER AND TELESCOPES History James Short: Europe s foremost maker of Reflecting Telescopes James Short was born in Edinburgh in 1710 and received a good education, progressing to Edinburgh University in He attended lectures by Colin Maclaurin, Professor of Mathematics, and became interested in science. He mastered the craft of making mirrors for reflecting telescopes and had a good understanding of optical theory. During his working life of over 35 years, Short made about 1,360 instruments - not only for customers in Britain but also for export: one is still preserved in Leningrad, another at Uppsala and several in America. Short was principal British collator and computer of the Transit of Venus observations made throughout the world on 6th June His instruments traveled on Endeavour with Captain Cook to observe the next Transit of Venus on 3rd June 1769, but Short died before this event took place BIBLIOGRAPHY Contents ATM Digest OPTICS ABC UPDATE ATTACHED GALLERY NEXT ISSUE ADVERTISMENT ON THE COVER VLT and Hubble Collage of the Hubble Space Telescope above the world s largest optical/infrared telescope, the ESO s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Image Credit: ESO/ST-ECF

6 SUBARU Japan s Eye of the Universe July/August May/June Issue, Bibliography: Vasco Ronchi In Focus: Merit Function Optimization

7 CONTENTS Issue May/June Volume 4 Number 3 Spectrum Subaru Japan s Eye of the Universe Earth s greatest telescopes. 3 ADVANCED OPTICS Grinding, Polishing, Materials Glossary. 18 OPTICS ABC 18 Merit Function Optimization Aberrations and Raytracing. 27 BACK TO THEORY AUTOFOCUS.BAS First steps in optimization. 29 OPTICAL COMPUTING 33 FRED Optical design and analysis package. 33 COMPUTER AND TELESCOPES History Vasco Rionchi Vasco Ronchi was an Italian physicist known for his work in optics. He was born on 19th December 1897 in Florence, Italy. Along with Enrico Fermi, he was a student of Luigi Puccianti. He studied from at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Pisa In 1922 he published work describing testing methods for optics using simple equipment. The Ronchi Test is widely used in amateur telescope making. He served numerous terms as the President of the 'Union Internationale d'histoire des Sciences' within the UNESCO. He authored 900 papers and 30 books BIBLIOGRAPHY Contents ATM Digest BOOKS UPDATE ATTACHED GALLERY NEXT ISSUE ADVERTISMENT ON THE COVER Subaru Telescope is located on the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the big island of Hawaii. The summit of Mauna Kea is one of the best astronomical observing sites in the world. With 13 telescopes form 11 countries now operating, Mauna Kea has more telescopes from more countries than any other observing site. In addition to Subaru, there are three other 8-10m class telescopes on Mauna Kea, the Gemini North telescope and the two Keck telescopes. Image credit: Subaru

8 Leon Foucault: The Dance of Shadows July/August JulyAugust Issue, Spectrum: Planet Hunters Could Find Life Software: LensForge for Mac OS X In Focus: Calculating Geometrical MTF

9 CONTENTS Issue July/August Volume 4 Number 4 Spectrum Planet Hunters Could Find Life Extrasolar Planets Searching. 3 SPACE OPTICS Glass Types Optical materials glossary. 16 OPTICS ABC 3 Calculating Geometrical MTF Image quality analysis. 18 BACK TO THEORY MTFPLOTTER.BAS Geometrical MTF plotter. 23 OPTICAL COMPUTING LensForge Optical design and analysis package for Max OS X. 29 COMPUTER AND TELESCOPES History Leon Foucault: The Dance of Shadows One of Foucault's many accomplishments was the publication, in 1859, of his development of the older pinhole technique into the Foucault test. Viewing the reflected pinhole across a straight knife edge causes a pattern of shadows that clearly shows the figure of the mirror. This simple improvement granted an enormous increase in the perfection of telescope optics. Foucault went on to analyze the patterns made by mirrors as they are polished from spherical to parabolic form. He also experimented with moving the light towards the mirror and the straight edge away from it, and with the various ellipsoidal mirror forms that can be made in this way. In his fifty year lifetime, Foucault also devised the famous Foucault pendulum, that was the first experimental demonstration of the rotation of the earth. He was also responsible for an accurate determination of the velocity of light, measured the distance to the sun with improved precision, and pioneered the silver on glass telescope mirror BIBLIOGRAPHY Contents ATM Digest OPTICS ABC UPDATE ATTACHED GALLERY NEXT ISSUE ADVERTISMENT ON THE COVER Jean Bernard Leon Foucault was a French physicist who is considered one of the most versatile experimentalists of the nineteenth century. He is well known for his experiments in optics and mechanics and was involved in the development of a method to measure the speed of light with extreme accuracy. Foucault is most often remembered for proving, with the use of a pendulum, that the Earth rotates on its axis. Image credit: OAMP

10 September/October Issue, 2006 Henry Fitz: America s First Commercial Telescope Maker In Focus: An alternative Floation Cell for parabollicaly shaped Mirrors by using an elastic Foundation Theory: Optical Apertures Software: CODE V

11 CONTENTS Issue September/October Volume 4 Number 5 Spectrum It is a Question of Aperture A Baker Street Reminiscence by Dr. John H. Watson 3 SHORT STORY Useful ATM Formulas ATM theoritical glossary. 8 OPTICS ABC An alternative Floation Cell for parabollicaly shaped Mirrors by using an elastic Foundation BACK TO THEORY ATMFORMULAS.XLS Graphical representation of the most commonly used ATM formulas. 27 OPTICAL COMPUTING CODE V Optical design and analysis package review. 29 COMPUTER AND TELESCOPES History Henry Fitz: America s First Commercial Telescope Maker Henry Fitz was preceded by the earliest American telescope makers, notably Amasa Holcomb, and followed by Alvan Clark and John Brashear, the most important makers from the United States. Fitz was the first important American telescope maker because his pioneering techniques of local correction of poor quality glass allowed him to construct the largest American made refractor. American made telescopes were much less expensive, than those from Europe, and local manufacture was an important factor in the proliferation of observatories in Nineteenth Century America BIBLIOGRAPHY Contents ATM Digest ATTACHED UPDATE BOOKS GALLERY NEXT ISSUE ADVERTISMENT ON THE COVER The Dudly s Observatory 13-inch Fitz refractor. Henry Fitz received commissions to build larger and larger telescopes for leading American universities and institutions. Among his larger telescopes were two 13" telescopes, one made for the Allegheny Observatory in 1861 that is still in service, and one for the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York. The Dudley telescope went into private hands around the turn of the century, and fell into obscurity until 1994 Image credit: S&T

12 November/December July/August Issue, Issue, Alvan Clark & Sons: World s Greatest Telescope Makers In Focus: Field Correctors for a Fast Newtonian with Parabolic Primary Software: Ross Null Calculator

13 CONTENTS Issue November/December Volume 4 Number 6 Spectrum SuperWASP Planetary transit telescope project 4 ADVANCED TELESCOPE TECHNIQUES Objective Types A glossary 11 OPTICS ABC Field Correctors for a Fast Newtonian with Parabolic Primary 16 BACK TO THEORY VIGNETTING.XLS Vignetting in a Newtonian telescope OPTICAL COMPUTING RossNullXP Ross Null Lens calculator COMPUTER AND TELESCOPES History Alvan Clark & Sons: World s Greatest Telescope Makers A renowned American maker of some of the world s largest and best lenses for refracting telescopes. Together with his sons, George Bassett Clark ( ) and Alvan Graham Clark ( ), he founded Alvan Clark & Sons at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, in 1846, and proceeded five times to make the objectives for the largest refracting telescopes in the world. These included the 26-inch lens at the US Naval Observatory (the first fine achromatic lens produced in the United States), the 32-inch lens at Pulkovo Observatory, the 36- inch lens at Lick Observatory, and the 40-inch lens at Yerkes Observatory, the largest ever built. The optical work of Clark & Sons was recognized as unsurpassed anywhere and represented the first significant American contribution to astronomical instrument-making; prior to this, American telescopes had never compared with those of European manufacture. Alvan Graham Clark is also remembered particularly for his discovery of the (white dwarf) companion of Sirius in BIBLIOGRAPHY ATM Digest ON THE COVER Contents OPTICS ABC ATTACHED UPDATE GALLERY NEXT ISSUE ADVERTISMENT The trial mounting for the great Russian telescope in Pulkovo, Russia constructed by Alvan Clark & Sons The refractor was destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) and only the lens survives. The 32-inch objective can be seen in the Pulkovo s Museum. 80 Image credit: SA

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