Jan. 13

Stupid stuff I thought I might use to build a telescope some day

When one has a hobby, any trip to a dollar store, garage sale or hardware store is seen through the eyes of that hobby. For me, it’s not so much a dollar store as it is a cheap store for telescope making supplies. Soon, everything that passes through your hands gets considered for its potential. Today I’m removing some items from my workshop after reconsidering their potential.

Here, you can see that the scene is dominated by foam. Styrofoam at the top and upholstery foam below that. Why foam?

Anyone who has ever built a telescope knows that weight is one of the challenges that should be overcome where possible. My 12.5" telescope is just at the upper limit of what I can carry by myself. If I were to rebuild it, I’d look for ever way possible to lighten things up. One way to go is to use alternative materials. Thus, the foam.

The difficulty with this is that I’ve had those pieces of foam for several years, and not only have I not used them, I haven’t even come up with a real idea of HOW I would use them. They’ve spent several years fulfilling no function beyond taking up space on one of my storage shelves.

As for the upholstery foam, I have used it since I received it. I just can’t remember for what purpose. In any case, if I come up with a project which requires it, I’ll just go buy some. It won’t be too expensive or hard to find.

On the lower right you can see a pile of peel and stick faux leather. It fell into my hands for free, but I have no purpose for it at all. I should have never even let it into the house.

Last of all is an item which wasn’t kept around for telescope making. It is a fold up mini-binocular. I received this at a trade show or some even when I worked for Airtime Multimedia, and while they are very portable (they fold up to fit in a shirt pocket) they are pretty much useless. They are rated as 3x magnification, which sounds like it might be useful, but it is hardly even noticable. I’ve tried using these at sporting events, and it wasn’t much better than naked eye.

I’m including the mini-binos because in past times I would have harvested the optics prior to disposing of them. But today, I’m forgoing that. When I want lenses, I’ll get the lenses I want. When I want ATM supplies, I’ll get the ATM supplies I want.

Perhaps, only 13 days into this project, I’m already learning good anti-clutter habits.