Astronomy: Build Your Own Telescope for Inexpensive Family Fun

Astronomy is thought of as something nerds do or those hidden away in towers with big telescopes and mysterious computations. However, you don’t need to be good at math a nerd or spend a long time learning to discover the stars. The ancients did that and learned a lot about their world that way. Given these times when money issues are foremost, it’s nice to know that there are simple things we can do to enjoy our world and learn more about it without having to spend a lot of money or do things that are too complicated to enjoy after all. It’s possible to have fun in your backyard with a little instruction and time, then get other folks around with you to enjoy it too.

We read how folks discover new planets and wax eloquently over stars and their speed, direction and relationship to one another. How many of us know that you can actually build your own telescope to appreciate those heavenly lights in the skies, those stars above us. That might even be a whole lot more interesting than watching the stars in other areas, those in television and the movies or in politics, those Bill Clintons, Sarah Palins, and Paris Hiltons, that all fade in time. Those stars in heaven won’t.

Joey Matheson in the town of Natchitoches, is a talented man, a retired clown from major circuses, who does odds and ends at a local church and teaches people how to build telescopes and enjoy looking at the stars. He is a Bible scholar also along with being an amateur astronomer, so in his own way he balances science and religion. Recently I spent some time with Joey as he explained the elements of the telescope. Looking at the heavens up close in the evening sky can be fulfilling and informative. Joey is not only adept with the telescope, he is also a master at explaining how it is used.

John Dobson, working in a monastery in San Francisco in the 1960’s, wanted to develop a telescope design that would be relatively easy to use. Joey has this type, which is called the Dobsonian telescope. The telescope originated with Isaac Newton. It consists of an eyepiece in the back, a secondary cage and mirror box. One looks through the eyepiece and sees the images that are brought through light that comes in and is reflected by a large mirror. Joey’s telescope is made for deep sky observing, for looking at galaxies, asteroids, and pinpointing stars. Through it one is able to see 18,000 galaxies.

The telescope helps one establish direction, iis used for navigational purposes and to establish the seasons for planting. Joey tells us that the telescope gives him certitude and understanding that there’s a purpose for everything in the relationship of one thing to another, in the earth and in the heavens. It has practical purposes as well as esoteric ones.

There are simple instructions the Internet for building telescopes and networks of people to talk with about them. Astronomy clubs are great groups to join because these folks are interested in nature and the heavens and like Joey see that purpose for everything under heaven.