That was Paul Linde, of Crossville, Tennessee, speaking, and he voiced the feelings of many who have been bitten by the amateur telescope making bug. It is a persistent, tenacious bug. Mr. Linde's three reflecting telescopes, a six-inch, an eight-inch, and a ten-inch, are shown in the illustration below. "The ten inch," he adds, "has a fixed mounting and is the one covered, when not in use, by the little house on wheels shown at the right." Later Mr. Linde advised us that he was working on a Cassegrainian telescope.

Going a bit farther west, we reach St. Louis, Missouri, where W. F. Sprengnether, Jr., a student at St. Louis University, has turned out a mounting (picture at top of page) which looks like professional instrument maker's work. Mr. Sprengnether writes:

"THE enclosed picture is of the six-inch reflector which I built with the aid of the book 'Amateur Telescope Making'' published by your magazine. The mirror was ground by means of a motor-driven machine, which I built, similar to those used by spectacle-lens grinders I made a cast-iron tool having a 12-inch diameter, and a 96-inch radius of curvature. This same tool, covered with felt, was used for polishing but figuring was done on pitch."

Westward again we jump to Riverside, California, where Dr. H. Page Bailey has made a 15-inch reflector and given it a mounting and housing which are unique.

"At the suggestion of Russell W. Porter," Dr. Bailey writes, "I am mailing photographs of the mounting that I've just completed for my 15 x 2-1/2 inch reflector. I use it as a Cassegrainian. I believe this is the first of this type of mounting to be used. I prefer it to other types for the following reasons: Entire heavens accessible; most rigid construction (double yoke); flexure equal in all positions; three point suspension; ease of attaining perfect balance; convenient position of ocular or camera."

What Dr. Bailey has done is to depress the crosshead of the conventional double yoke style of mounting so that the tube can be lowered as far as the pole star. At any given time not quite the "entire heavens" is accessible, but the rotation of the earth brings up to accessibility the small area under the pole. The bearings under the curved yoke head are of the ball type.

"The framework was built of discarded truck frames," Dr. Bailey continues, "and the driving clock is one of the old style General Electric synchronous motors, made for a phonograph. The worm wheel is connected to the south polar axis by a friction plate. This permits turning the instrument without interfering with the rate of the motor.

"The walls and doors of the telescope housing are fixed, with a light counterbalanced roof that opens toward the south. Its operation is quick and easy.

"Dr. John A. Anderson of the Mt. Wilson Observatory and Russell W Porter inspected this instrument a few weeks ago, and I believe either of them will give you their opinion of my home made outfit."

Mr. Porter was asked for his opinion and gave it in laconic form, "Very good." There is a group of amateurs in Riverside known as "The Associated Telescope Makers of Riverside." The school at Riverside recently acquired a 16-inch reflector. In California, astronomy is said to be taught in the high schools, much as physics and chemistry are in the east. We know of no such courses in the east-in fact only a few of the universities teach astronomy to more than a few who expect to specialize.

We devoted the whole of our space last August to a grinding machine and a telescope made by Byron L. Graves, 336 South June Street, Los Angeles, and now Mr. Graves is in again with something else-a new telescope with an 8-1/2 inch Pyrex mirror, on a Springfield mounting and a pedestal made of 6-inch pipe fittings, and driven by a Dictophone motor. He has also constructed a dingbat for making the knife-edge test. This, he admits, is against the rules of the game (ATM page 97) but says he made it, anyway, just for fun. Now he is making a Cassegrainian. (By the way, copies of the Hindle monograph on the Cassegrainian-Gregorian are still available for workers who have previously made common Newtonians. Judging by the number of requests for this monograph about 40 compound telescopes must be in various stages of gestation.)

Another "old timer"-advanced amateur worker-is Harold A. Lower of 1032 Pennsylvania Street, San Diego, California, who sends us a photograph of his new 12-inch Cassegrainian-Newtonian combination telescope with its housing rolled off on tracks. He also sent a focograph of the 12-inch primary of this telescope and we hope to reproduce this next month. It is a beauty- showing, in fact, that his mirror is of professional grade. Lower's telescope is equipped with a clock drive and a concrete pedestal that must be really rigid

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