THAT IMPOSING battery of telescopes- four of them-which you see pointed skyward in the nearest illustration, is the work of Clarence T. Jones, architect, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Bruce Jones, his son. There are two six-inch instruments one eight-inch and one twelve-inch. We learn that the Jones combination is also making a fifth telescope. In Chattanooga amateur astronomical circles-that is, the Barnard Astronomical Society-keeping up with the Joneses must put a lot of people in a tough predicament.

A TELESCOPE "made in Germany" by Arno Penühn, a mechanical engineer, Geisenheimerstrasse 41, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany, is shown in a photograph taken indoors, which also shows one of those ornate, elaborate German stoves so characteristic of that land. The telescope was built from the instructions in von Krudy's "Das Spiegelteleskop" and is shown here in order give an idea what sort of job a German amateur does -not very dissimilar from a good neat job here. It has an eight-inch mirror of 73-l/2 inch focal length and will stand a five-millimeter eyepiece in good weather, according to its owner. There is a society of several thousand amateur astronomers (note, not telescope makers) in Germany, though we have no record of its name. Herr Penkühn writes that he is also a member of the Berlin Amateur Astronomer's Association.

AS the above photograph shows, an ingenious solution of the finder problem was worked out by Walter E. McGuire and his son Daniel McGuire, of Shadyside, Ohio. The finder is a 4-1/4 inch reflector and the same eyepiece serves for it and the main telescope. To use the finder the rubber bulb shown is squeezed. This actuates a piston and pushes a prism out of a recess and into the axis of the finder mirror, at the same time occluding the rays from the main mirror. The latter is a 10-inch Pyrex of 80 inches f.l. The younger McGuire relates an experience with thin glass, which throws light on the 8-to-1 precept; he previously made two mirrors of 10-inch x 3/4-inch glass. One held its figure while the other required a 9-point support. One sometimes can beat the 8-to-1rule, but why flirt with disappointment?

"The finder," McGuire junior writes, "works fine. There are also some objects, such as the Pleiades, on which the finder with low magnification is better than the large telescope."

The younger McGuire is one of three who independently discovered the slit test ("A.T.M.", p. 380). Russell W. Porter's discovery of the same test dates from 1916, as recently found records show.

EVIDENTLY not many workers can be led to make wooden tubes, despite the superior seeing qualities they make possible. One made by Dr. Alvin G. Percival optometrist, 628 Auditorium Bldg., Los Angeles, California, is described by him as follows: "The telescope is five feet, six inches in length, made of 3/4-inch straight-grained redwood, finished in natural color, with about six coats of varnish rubbed down with pumice and oil. Its hexagonal shape makes a strong, light, neat looking tube. One-inch brass bands and glue securely bind the pans together." Let's have some more wooden tubes.

ANOTHER wooden tube is that 11 of W. F. Decker, a retired mechanical engineer, aged 76, Route 2, Excelsior, Minnesota, who writes: "My tube is made of mahogany strips 3/4-inch x 1-1/8 inches, four and a half feet long. These are spaced on circles at each end and are re-enforced by filling pieces in the middle section. The general form is a dodecahedron. The eyepiece is fitted to an adjustable block between two strips.

"I have used standard three-inch pipe fittings for the mount," he continues. "Inasmuch as I am within about seven miles of the 45th parallel, a standard 45-degree 'Y' answers well for & support of the polar axis. This is fitted with a 1-to. 80 worm gear, for slow motion. The declination axis is merely a close nipple between the 'T' and saddle. It works smoothly and without backlash when screwed up to just the right point.

"I support the tube in the saddle by means of two leather straps, and can set it in any one of 12 different ways, so as to have the eyepiece always handy.

"Though I did not attempt to parabolize my mirror, I managed to secure a good spherical surface. I saw the rings of Saturn the other morning, faintly because of the present great distance, and am having a lot of fun seeing the mountains of the moon, Mars, the double star Mizar, and in observing the rapid shiftings of the moons of Jupiter."

HERE is a letter from Wilbur J. MacNeil of the Science Dept., Punahou Academy, Honolulu:

"A five-inch telescope, constructed as a physics class project at Punahou Academy, Honolulu, Hawaii, is perhaps unique in one respect; its mounting is an anti-aircraft machine-gun mount modified to suit its new purpose.

"Frederick Reppun, now a freshman at Harvard, ground the mirror last year while he was a student at Punahou. This year William Hole, a junior, reconstructed a condemned machine-gun mount, putting on a polar axis to adapt it to this latitude, a counterpoise for the telescope, and a worm and gear to give slow motion."

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.