Starboard wrote:
Or. is it something that one does for the pure sport of it?

I had the sort-lived but very intriguing idea that I could teach myself
about optics well enough to slowly, carefully, grind my own lenses and
make a 6 or 7 inch semi-apochromatic refractor.

I started looking through a lens design book and it quickly began to
look nearly impossible to hand grind and match the lenses without having
a lot of expensive tools and testing devices. I only have the standard
assortment of Craftsman house tools.

If RC or TB or anyone who knows about this firsthand is reading this and
would comment...is it impossible or nearly so to hand grind an
apochromatic lens? What is the minimum of tools and testing equipment
needed?

I made a 6in reflector for Astronomy 101 in college and that was a lot
of fun. My professor was Dr. Walker Baker, who enjoyed teaching inmates
(prisoners) Astronomy in his spare time. He always commented that he
couldn't figure out exactly how they managed to cheat on his tests, but
a group of them always had the same answers. Then he showed graphs of
our performance compared to the inmates. To give you a better idea of
his sense of humor...he had a bumper sticker that read "Eschew
Obfuscation".

--
Clear Skies,
Paul Murphy

(remove gemini to email me)