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So sad to hear now that this telescope and observatory will be closing and the history book slammed shut on one of the last great telescopes responsible for leading the United States and the University of Chicago into the twentieth century and to major discoveries and contributions in astronomy and astrophysics.

Starlight Instrument’s New Posi Drive Motor System is a First Class Winner

Don't throw out that old toaster!!

Amateur astronomers have a choice between instruments that are commercially available or becoming amateur telescope makers and building ones that are more suited to their needs. For the latter, the amateur has the freedom of instrument design as well as selection of specific components that represent the best available instead of compromising with what is provided with a commercially built unit.

Putting a fork into myths about Hubble's Galaxy classification

Has your eyepiece case seen better days? Has your pick-n-pluck been plucked one to many times?

In some ways, today’s imported telescope tripods are surprisingly good. Particularly the ubiquitous Chinese 2-inch diameter steel legged jobs. Sadly, however, almost all have a weak link. Their spreaders are pitiful. Unckle Rod just might have found a cure for that...

Your telescope's static balance can be achieved even when using a wide range of oculars.

In the current model of the Universe favored by most cosmologists the composition of the Universe is ~4.5% visible (baryonic) matter, 22.7% non-baryonic dark matter, and 72.8% dark energy...

... a beautiful grassy field for tent campers ( empty ), spotlessly clean bathrooms with hot showers, very nice camp sites with some shade trees right by the grassy field, a nice restaurant ... and if that wasn’t enough ... a challenging, well maintained 18 hole golf course! All this under the darkest skies in the US.

The definition of a planet and where the division is between Solar System objects that are planets and those that are not planets is currently in a state of disagreement among scientists.

In the summer of 1997, on my quest to interview the great commercial telescope makers in American history for a book, I made a pilgrimage to one of the most famous small towns in telescope history: New Hope, Pennsylvania.