For people who make their own telescopes, there’s no name like Stellafane.
The annual convention, which dates back 103 years to a club called the Springfield Telescope Makers, takes place on Breezy Hill in Vermont, across the Connecticut River from Charlestown. While it’s not quite Burning Man, it usually draws at least 1,000 people to swap tips, admire projects, analyze the night sky and vote on homemade telescopes both traditional and avant-garde.
That’s why Dick Michaud wanted the Monitor to know that his son, Peter, whose tenure at Concord High School indirectly led to the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, did so well there with a homemade refracting telescope built on what can only be called an unusual foundation.
“You know those gazing balls that people have in their yard as decoration? That’s what I used,” said Peter Michaud. “I used to go as a teenager, but haven’t been back in years. I took this to Stellafane and I’m quite confident that nobody has ever seen one like it before.”
Michaud, a 1980 graduate of Concord High and 1984 graduate of Plymouth State University, says he used the gazing ball partly because it’s a cool idea but also because time has taken its toll. Refracting telescopes are often very long tubes. When placed on typical backyard tripods, observers must bend over or squat to get to the eyepiece.
Michaud used the gazing ball to create a folding telescope with the eyepiece at, well, eye level. “I can’t contort myself anymore I wanted to make one that is more user-friendly. The ball acts as a mount so you can sit in a chair and be comfortable while using it,” he said.
The 35-pound telescope won first in mechanical design and second in craftmanship, and drew enough attention that Michaud may put together plans for distribution.
Homemade telescopes draw fans both for the construction details — grinding mirrors, working with metal and wood for frames and housing, detail work on eyepieces — and for the results, allowing exploration of the moon, planets, nebulae and stars. Michaud said carbon fiber and 3-D printing give modern amateur builders more options for lighter and different designs.
Peter Michaud has been building scopes since he was a teen. He says he was one of the founders of the Astronomy Club at Concord High School back when Jimmy Carter was president, and that club over time morphed into the thriving New Hampshire Astronomical Society.
Stellafane was founded by Richard Porter in 1923 and is widely regarded as the nation’s birthplace of amateur telescope making. Its annual convention has had its ups and downs but has grown steadily in recent decades. In 1989, the 3.5-acre site on Breezy Hill, including the Stellafane Clubhouse and Porter Turret Telescope, were listed as a National Historic Landmark.
