Re: Wiki for ATM

Chris L Peterson wrote:
Just a few thoughts- there are not many ATMs anymore. Most amateur
astronomers buy their optics, and those that are into building things
usually do so with other parts of the system than the telescope. The
information database underlying telescope making (presumably, what your
wiki seeks to provide) is not very complex, and is well covered by just
a few classic publications. The few people I know who still build optics
tend to be fairly non-technical in a modern sense: they build the
optics, but their mounts tend to be dobs or otherwise fairly simple, and
are more about craftsmanship than high technology. As such, I suspect
these folks are more into spending their time actually doing the work
than they are writing about it online.

The class of people the wiki is targetting is a bit different. For
example, my own group of friends here in India, are all building their
own telescopes, primarily to save costs. We are a group of about 10-20
people, and almost all of us have built their own scopes (in the recent
past). Right now, some 3 of us are building our respective scopes.

Most of us are college students who can't afford to buy equipment. Or
even good books for that matter (mostly because they are not easily
available here). We have two books (by Sam Brown and by Richard Berry),
but they are a bit vague in some areas, especially in mirror making.
There is a lot of material on the net, but it is all scattered around.
So, I thought a wiki would help bring it all together.

None of this is should be taken as bashing, just observations about why
your response may be low. Then again, your reply to yourself is the
first time I ever heard of your wiki- I either missed an earlier post,
or if fell into some Internet black hole.

The entire thread can be viewed here:
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.astro.amateur/browse_thread/thread/dd7adc97686058ab

Thanks,
Harshad

.

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