Big Bend students make telescopes on the cheap
Courtesy photo/Catherine Holestine, Big Bend Community CollegeBig Bend physics instructor Jim Hamm (right) works helps a student build "the frugal telescope" during class in 2002. Hamm has continued the project for 10 years and estimates about 100 students have constructed telescopes.
MOSES LAKE - Using plywood, sticky felt and PVC pipe, Kimberly Cobb carefully assembled a homemade refracting telescope on Thursday that only cost her $55.
Cobb, 18, of Soap Lake, joins a group of about 100 students who have avoided spending hundreds of dollars on an expensive telescope by building the "frugal telescope" in Jim Hamm's astronomy class at Big Bend Community College.
She just started the project last Monday, which takes about four or five hours to complete.
As Cobb unrolled a small piece of sticky felt to fit inside a PVC pipe, Hamm jokingly said "good luck, the pressure's on."
On store shelves, a similar telescope with a 2-inch lens diameter costs between $80 and $100, Hamm said.
Larger telescopes sell for a range of prices, including models retailing for about $420 and $650, according to the Orion Web site.
The lenses and eyepieces are the most expensive parts for the project and Hamm orders the items from a store in British Columbia.
Hamm, an astronomy enthusiast, started the project about 10 years ago after a student asked him about making a telescope in class.
He found an article in "Sky & Telescope" magazine and obtained the telescope's plans from a man in Tennessee. Today, Hamm suggests people look online to find the frugal telescope's plans.
Over the years, Hamm changed the plans by building the tripod out of plywood and pine instead of four-inch PVC tube. The PVC was too flimsy for the tripod and he found the wood was more stable, he said.
This quarter, students will likely be able to view Saturn's rings, cloud bands on Jupiter and Jupiter's moon, he said.
To receive credit for the project, Hamm's students are required to write a paper and include research about the eyepiece and information about the focal length and magnification.
Tshira Hornsby, 18, finished her telescope in November and is now taking a physics class from Hamm.
She said she used her telescope to look at the moon, Venus, road signs and across Moses Lake. It was too dark to see stars within Moses Lake's city limits, she found.
She thinks her family and boyfriend use the telescope more, she added.
"I thought building it was really fun," Hornsby said. "It's interesting to see how the telescope works and learn about it."
Hornsby said she and some of her classmates decided to build the telescope last year for fun.
She said Hamm showed the class photos of "star parties" he's attended where stargazers typically stay up all night to observe planets and stars.
"It's pretty nice, you get to hear stories from experience, not from a textbook," she said.