The I.A.U. named asteroid 17823 Bartels discovered 1998 by J.M.Roe in recognition for my contributions to amateur astronomy.
Everyone has the right to see the Milky Way.
My thinking
- Grinding my own mirrors, building the telescopes then observing the universe is deeply satisfying. Making is the key to knowing.
- I sketch to observe. Future generations may never look through the eyepiece; may sketches along with many others may serve as a historical record of what we once saw.
- My brightest views come from maximizing etendue in the eyepiece. For example, a 20 inch [51cm] F3 telescope produces a brighter view than a 10 inch [25cm] F6. Both have the same focal length. Both produce the same magnifications and fields of view with my set of eyepieces.At maximum etendue (largest pupil, widest field of view) I've rediscovered the Pleiades Bubble, found the Andromeda Twist and sketched 150 IFN (Integrated Flux Nebula or galactic cirrus).
- Thin highly curved meniscus mirrors of constant thinness are light and portable; they enable 'feet on the ground' observing with big aperture.
To illustrate, three drawings with my 30 inch [76cm] F2.7
The Antenna galaxies, M57 the Ring Nebula with outer ring and IFN, M13 the Great Hercules globular cluster with IFN. More drawings here. Rediscovering IFN here.
Quotes
- Seneca said that, "There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them. . . . Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced. Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate . . . . Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all." (Natural Questions Book 7, c. first century)
- Russell W. Porter, founder of Stellafane wrote, "For it is true that astronomy, from a popular standpoint, is handicapped by the inability of the average workman to own an expensive astronomical telescope. It is also true that if an amateur starts out to build a telescope just for fun he will find, before his labors are over, that he has become seriously interested in the wonderful mechanism of our universe. And finally there is understandably the stimulus of being able to unlock the mysteries of the heavens by a tool fashioned by one's own hand."
- Robert Burnham, Jr. wrote, "The appeal of astronomy is both intellectual and aesthetic; it combines the thrill of exploration and discovery, the fun of sight-seeing, and the sheer pleasure of firsthand acquaintance with incredibly wonderful and beautiful things."
- Stephen James O’Meara wrote in his third book in the Deep-Sky Companions series, "As for now, I am living under natural skies. I feel like an explorer who has been given an opportunity to study the last great tract of rainforest. I spend my time documenting everything I see, because I know that there will come a day when everything I see will no longer be regarded as reality but as a myth. I hope that day never comes, but until it does, I’ll be out there seeing what I can see."
- “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” — John Maynard Keynes
- “Life is trying things to see if they work.” – Ray Bradbury
My projects - into thin glass
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The pan or cone mount, an idea I came up with in summer 2024. My presentation at the Altaz 2024 conference. I describe the pan / cone mount at the end of my one hour talk.
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John Dobson brought us the Dobsonian telescope: big aperture bright views.
So that a standard Dobsonian 16 inch F5 with its one degree field of view morphs into:
Q&A on meniscus mirrors.
Listen to an interview of me on the Actual Astronomy Podcast, June 2023.
Transforming a 28 inch f4 telescope into a 30 inch F2.7, by Howard Banich and his presentation, Oct 2022, for the Altaz Initiative. |
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I finished my effort to consolidate my telescope design software and articles into the interactive NewtDesigner. |
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2018 I lept into large thin meniscus mirrors, completing the 25x1/2 inch [635x13mm] F2.6, a slumped meniscus shaped mirror blank from Greg Wilhite. I designed a lightweight 3-axis mounting to go with the lightweight mirror with a total weight of 75 pounds [34kg].
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2016 embolden by recent observations, I tried my luck on IFNs... 2018 can I see IFN with large aperture? Is etendue a consistent explanation across apertures? 2019 can I see IFN with binocs/unaided-eye? 2022 does a 30 inch telescope show detail in IFN? 2023 OIII clouds: a new class of astronomical object? |
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2013 I followed with 6 inch F2.8 and 10.5 inch [267x19mm] F2.7 mirrors (another Richard Schwartz slumped meniscus shape) to gain more experience. Major success optically and observationally. |
| 2008 I finished the slumped meniscus shaped 13.2x1 inch [335x25mm] F3.0 mirror blank that Richard Schwartz sent me; I am so happy with the scope optically, mechanically and observationally. |
| In 2003 I finished construction of a new ultralight design that I call the Trilateral or TriDob, based on the use of triangles in the upper end, the trusses and the rocker with altitude bearings. |
| I began developing an open source software and hardware computerized control system for telescopes in the mid 1980's that incorporated software and hardware innovations. Pat Sweeney designed a PCB in the late 1990's. And in 2000 my wife Barbara and I incorporated BBAstroDesigns, Inc. to sell kits and finished boards. I finished my 20 inch fully computerized telescope in 1994 with which I took some early CCD images. |
| My Dobson era begin in 1981 with a bang: a 24 inch f5.5. I built my first grinding machine and worked on 20 inch f/4, 20 inch f/5, 24 inch f/6, 25 inch f/6 and 30 inch f/4 mirrors. |
| I began in the 1960's and 1970's by building Palomar 200 inch inspired horseshoe mounted reflectors equipped with homemade cold cameras, processing black and white Tri-X negatives and color Ektachrome slides in my darkroom. |
