The home page of Nils Olof Carlin

Ystad, Sweden at 55 deg 26 min N, 13 deg 49 min E

Medlem av SAAF Svensk AmatörAstronomisk Förening och sektionsledare för teleskopsektionen

Click to see me and my 160mm f/5.6 Dob

Now this site is a member of the ATM Web Ring. Some of the items here are mirror images of what is on other sites, like Mel Bartels' Telescope Making site and the ATM site.

Right now you can find:

• Some information on how to calculate visual limiting star magnitudes based on a paper by Bradley E Schaefer (also on Mel Bartels' site)
• Some background information about visual limiting magnitudes based on a paper by H R Blackwell (also on Mel Bartels' site)
• A discussion of visual limiting magnitudes in binoculars
• How to calculate Couder screens to use in Foucault testing - in collaboration with Ken Slater (also on the ATM site)
• Book review: Binocular Astronomy by Craig Crossen & Wil Tirion
• Book review: Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes by H R Suiter
• Equipment review: Swift Audubon 8.5x44 Binoculars
• An image gallery
• A few results that I have calculated - others may find them helpful (I plan to add more in the future):
  When is a center spot on a secondary mirror visible?
  The spherical aberration of a paraboloid mirror for objects of finite distance
  Mirror edge supports - an attempt to find out just how sensitive they are to small errors of adjustment. You may be surprised how little it takes to cause serious astigmatism or other image degradation in a thin, large mirror.

Some pages about various aspects of collimating Newtonian telescopes:

• Some advice on collimating Newtonian telescopes (also on Mel Bartels' site and the ATM site) - here a revised version, Nov -02)
• A new analysis of the autocollimator (New Dec -04)
• Some myths about collimating revealed (revised Dec -04)
• The YACHT or Yet Another Collimating Home-made Tool (April -01)
• Ideas about collimating the secondary mirror using a laser with a holographic grid - new (June -04)

Some Amateur Telescope Making projects:

• How to make extension tubes for Barlows (also on the ATM site)
• My hacksaw style spider - with graphics by Olle Eriksson (also on the ATM site)
• About updating a Dobsonian-style telescope
• About some of my telescope projects
• A new continuous-motion vibration-free stepper motor driver for my Equatorial Platform - new (Sept -01)(with revisions Dec -02) and unique
• A computer controlled Foucault tester built from old junked hard disk drives (Sept -01)
• A three-part cable sling that is simple to implement, designed to keep the mirror accurately in place without introducing astigmatism (link added Oct -05)

På svenska:

• Att kollimera Newtonteleskop - en förkortad version
• Vanliga frågor om okular
• Om ströljus i Newtonteleskop

Some links:

• NEW! my article in Sky & Telescope June 2002 - now (Dec -02) on line.
  You might find it easier to read - at least as an introduction.
• Jim Burrows' home page - you will find some really high-class optic theory here.
  You can also download Diffract , a great Foucault test simulation program
• Download Aberrator, a startest simulation program by Cor Berrevoets

My collimation page translated:

• Version Francaise
• Nederlands

Send me an email

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