THE VIDEO SHELF · telescope making
Telescope Building with John Dobson
A roughly 90-minute film of John Dobson building a Dobsonian telescope step by step, including hand-grinding the mirror.
Why HN readers recommended it
Recommended to anyone interested in telescope making as a guide from Dobson himself.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Dobson Astro-Initiatives
- Topic
- telescope making
- Format
- tutorial
- Level
- intermediate
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 4
- HN mentions in dataset
- 5
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2017–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
There is also a 90 minutes film »Telescope building with John Dobson« [1], inventor of the Dobsonian telescope [2], going through the entire process of building a 16" telescope from scratch. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]
danbruc on Hacker News · 2017-03
In Mirror grindingI like this video from John Dobson about handmade telescopes, where he builds a complete telescope including hand grinding the mirrors. [VIDEO]
DanBC on Hacker News · 2020-04
In Hand Scraping a Truly Flat Plane (1908) [pdf]The most important thing to look for is the diameter of the aperture. Your resolution is proportional to the diameter of the telescope (absent atmospheric conditions). I would recommend a minimum of 6" in diameter. 8-12" is preferred. With this in mind, the best telescope …
Prey4Jesus on Hacker News · 2021-02
In Ask HN: What entry-level telescope should I choose?
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.