How do you build a telescope?

Note that you can buy a Dobsonian telescope (really a super kit that needs some assembly, principally the mount) for about the same price as you can buy the components to make one, unless you step back from the "buy a mirror, mirror cell, etc." like I did and make some of these components yourself. This was the John Dobson idea with his telescope design.

The first link is to a book I used to understand part of what I was doing. It is available at the site below or at Amazon, and maybe at a local library.

The third link is to another book I used even more heavily so that my telescope could be disassembled and transported when we go camping or traveling.

Consider a Yahoo or Google search for "Dobsonian Telescope building"

Source(s):

http://www.willbell.com/tm/dobtel.htm
http://www.birchardvilleobservatory.org/…
http://www.tomclarkbooks.com/tomclarkboo…
Yahoo or Google search results includes plans by San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers, among other things.