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    astronomy and atm links . . .

 

. . . to pages of other telescope makers . . .

These are just a few internet links, which are very useful to get an idea of what can be achieved by ATMs. Much more extensive lists of links can be found on the websites of Stathis KafalisVery informative link lists (sorted by topic) can be found on the web pages of Stellafane (very recommended!)

 

A few pages in German (partly also in English) ... 

Stathis Kafalis   A must! Everything about mirror grinding and Dobsonians. Stathis is also a supplier of borofloat mirror blanks and grit. 
Uwe Glahn   27" aluminum and carbon fiber Dob on EQ platform
Kai Kretzschmar's  28" f/3.1 sets the new standards for large mirrors: This is the future!

 

... from our neighbors ...

Frédéric Géa und David Vernet   Two 1 m f/3 Dream Dobs with slumped mirrors! More pictures are here and here
Alt-Az   Even more Big Dobs from France

 

... and from over the big pond

Ed Jones   Inventor of the CHief (catadioptric Herschelian Schiefspiegler), has been made up to 20" f/8
Tom Osypowski    Spica Eyes Telescopes and equatorial platforms
Howard Banich   28" aluminum Dob with tracking
Ross Sackett  Moonsilver single-pole Dobs with elegant finish

.. . . internet communities . . .

The ATM and Observing forum on Astrotreff (german)

... on Cloudynights (english)...
... on Deep Sky Forum (english, dedicated to Visual Deep Sky Observing) ...
... and on Astrosurf (in french).

 

. . . observing . . .

Getting bored at the telescope? Try this!

You think you have observed everything? Check out the web pages of Steve Gottlieb, Mark Wagner, and Jim Shields
Alvin Huey offers free pdf observing guide books on his webpage faintfuzzies.com
Paul Alsing has a very nice collection of observing sheets of exotic objects.

 

Many more interesting observing reports can be found by Tom Polakis, Mark Wagner and Ray Cash. Another good source of observing suggestions is the  Yahoo Group AmAstro.

 

There are many German web pages with observing projects, as for instance those of Stathis Kafalis (Abell PN and exotic stuff)
Peter Surma (with tons of interesting background knowledge about the astrophysics of the object)
Uwe Glahn (in particular galaxies and PN)
Johannes Brachtendorf (interesting small observing projects)

 

Many more interesting observing projects can be found on the pages of Martin Schönball, Hans-Jürgen Merk, or Daniel Restemeier.

 

DSS Plate Finder, direct access to the POSS and other Sky Surveys with a direct Simbad interface.

Wikisky, the digital sky
The Deep Sky Browser of Messier45.com
A comprehensive site about our Milky Way and for instance on Sharpless HII regions is available by Kevin Jardine on GalaxyMap.org

  Looking for filter transmission data? Look at Andre Knöfel's website

 

. . . meet each other. . .

Deep Sky Meeting in Indelhausen,  organized by Hans-Jürgen and Gitti Merk, Tobias Schöller, and Matze Pagano

 

. . . nice pictures . . .

Eine fantastische Bildersammlung exotischer Objekte von Adam Block gibt es in der Mount Lemmon Sky Center Gallery.
The NOAO Kitt Peak Observatory image gallery shows interesting objects taken with professional equipment.

Narrow band imaging by Richard Crisp (OIII / HII / SII composites)

Fascinating images with 24" by Stefan Binnewies and Josef Pöpsel
Deep images of large planetaries  by  Don Goldman
Exotic Planetaries by Stephane Zoll
Sharpless images by Dean Salman.
A unique collection of long focal lenght images of  galaxies and PNs by  Jim Misti with a 32" RC.
A dusty universe, portrayed in ultra-deep images by Rogelio Bernal Andreo
Sakib Rasool is not an astrophotographer himself, but hosts a very interesting collection of links to selected images of others
Mario Weigand shows on his web page SkyTrip.de fantastic images of the planets. His moon images are the reference standard.

Damian Peach's high-res images are the state of the art in planetary imaging from earth.

 

. . . useful software . . .

 

for telescope making ...

Newt by Dale Keller, design of Newtonians

Plop by David Lewis, design of mirror cells  (link doesn't work anymore)

FigureXP  by Dave Rowe and James Lerch and Foucault-Test Analysis by Andreas Reifke, very useful software for Foucault testing (links are dead)

Open Fringe  by Dale Eason for analysis of interferograms

Mirror edge support calculator by Robert Houdart calculates optimal lateral mirror support

 

... and for observing

Cartes du Ciel, freeware charting program by Patrick Chevalley 

Virtual Moon Atlas by Patrick Chevalley and Christian Legrand, converts every Deep Sky Fan to a part-time lunar observer

SunMoon by Peter Wienerroither, great small software that calculates Moon, dusk, and dawn for a month and displays it in a very neat way
Startrails Software by Achim Schaller

 

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