The Dobsonian Telescope: an Outreach Exploration II

Abstract

We are reclaiming optical equipment from some of our older, unusable telescopes, to incorporate into new portable Dobsonian telescopes, which we are building and hope to use for viewing sessions in more distant communities, and on trips. SWOSU has several old non-working telescopes that either broke (irretrievably), or were donated and unusable, but which have good to excellent optics and can be rescued from obsolescence with careful construction. We have begun with some of the smaller optical systems (6 inch diameter mirrors), but we will be making telescopes out of 10 inch, 12 inch, and 16 inch mirrors in the future. Considerable care has to be taken to make sure the telescopes move extremely smoothly and can be pointed very precisely—this is the challenge in building a usable (great) Dobsonian telescope. In addition to using them for on-campus observing sessions, we hope to use these telescopes as part of Physics Club community outreach by taking them to other towns.