A. E. PARKE, 6453 Oliphant Avenue, Chicago, sends in a snapshot and says. "This is our first telescope which our boys and myself have just finished, a six-inch reflector which has turned out very satisfactorily. The craters on the moon and the moons of Jupiter are very distinct with a half-inch eyepiece. We have not yet had a chance at the other planets. The figuring of the mirror developed with very little trouble, and we have a total absence of color of distortion. Our mounting is made of pipe fittings on a wooden tripod and works very well. We have learned much in making this one and hope to have a still larger one."

FRANKLIN B. WRIGHT, 155 Bret Harte Place, Berkeley, California, says: "While gazing at the Milky Way in the high Sierras I resolved to have a good portable instrument next time. The result is shown in the enclosed snapshot. It consists of a 60 millimeter (2/1/8 inch) Bausch and Lomb objective costing 30 dollars, about nine dollars' worth of brass tubing and about six dollars' worth of wood, bolts and springs and other odds and ends for the mountings and tripod. Since I have no machine tools the mounting is designed to be made with nothing but ordinary tools which everybody bas around the home. The bulky-looking counterweight consists of two old Chevrolet brake drums bolted together. It is adjustable in a wooden slot underneath."

E. LLOYD McCARTHY, 10 Powers Street, Canton, New York, a college student, sends in a photograph which shows that times have not changed since days we , fondly recall; for the picture gives evidence that Sophomore McCarthy demolished a bridge in order to get a suitable pedestal for his telescope. Here is what he writes:

"The telescope has a six-inch mirror of 46-inch focal length; a one-inch prism; and a half-inch eyepiece. The mirror was polished on a lap of honeycomb foundation after failure with tempered rosin.

"That cast-iron base once did duty holding up a bridge railing. The bearings and axes are pipe fittings; the counterweight was made by casting a calculated amount of lead on a length of pipe. Two semicircular pieces of eight-inch strap iron grip the tube at its center of gravity.

"I have had some good 'shots' at four of Jupiter's moons as well as its belts; our own moon; and terrestrial objects. The other day I lectured about my telescope to one of the physics classes at St. Lawrence University, where I am a sophomore. Judging from the questions and comments afterward, about half of the class want to build telescopes of their own."

TURN now to page 71 of "Amateur Telescope Making" (the second, or 1928, edition) and you will see a telescope made by H. O. Bergstrom. Since then this enthusiast, who is a locomotive engineer at North Platte, Nebraska (P. O. Box 491) has turned out another-two more in fact but one of the pictures he sends is out of focus so we can't reproduce it.

"Though it's a long time since you have heard from this 'T. N.' my enthusiasm in the work hasn't waned a bit," this Casey Jones (we'd like to ride behind him) writes, "l'm enclosing two photos. One of them is another six-inch reflector; the other is the eight-inch glass shown in the July 1928 number of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, with the mounting reconstructed. The equatorials for both these telescopes have a special 'North Platte type' quick-setting slow-motion control, a real luxury for the amateur. The mount for the six-inch glass is made from an old cistern-pump stand and two Ford front wheel hubs. The other mount is made up of 'pump-stand' 1-1/2 inch pipe fittings and two Ford transmission drums. The little 'star' standing by the six-inch glass is Marjorie Castell, aged four.

"I'm still at work on an eight-inch Cassegrain but on account of having very little leisure time the progress is slow.

"I have received quite a number of requests for a description of my earlier telescope, since it was published in the SClENTIFIC AMERICAN. A few requests are still straggling in. Requests were received, among others, from Canada, Cuba, Australia and Java."

WRITES Paul W. Spain 226 Seventh Avenue, North, Nashville, Tennessee: "Well, I finally got it finished. It is rather crudely done, but I think it will do for starter. The Foucault shadows were very well defined, however. I used a frosted 40-watt light in testing, and found that it gives a much better light. I was successful in my silvering the first time, probably due to beginner's luck. The tube is an old stove pipe found in a nearby junk pile

"I am now planning a ten-inch reflector with setting circles. The labor is certainly well repaid that is put into a telescope.

THE descriptions given above pertain to typical telescopes made by the average amateur bitten by the bug. We have on hand for publication a number of others, and these bread-and-butter jobs will be sprinkled in, as it were, with a variety of more out-of-the-ordinary things. For example there is a water-clock drive (and it actually works, too) by the old-timer Harold Lower; a telescope made in Australia; a 16-inch reflector mounted on giant sized pipe fittings; the new "milk pail" mounting discovered in Detroit, a circus telescope (Chrysanthemum our cynical office cat say hey all are, but she doesn't know); a12-inch Cassegrainian by Porter which is so smooth looking you'd want to take it t bed with you; also a 21-inch Cassegrainian by England's leading amateur, J. H. Hindle.

The Society for Amateur Scientists (SAS) is a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to helping people enrich their lives by following their passion to take part in scientific adventures of all kinds.