amateur telescope maker

Amateur Telescope Making (ATM) is a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls between 1926 and 1953 while he was an associate editor at Scientific American. The books cover various aspects of telescope construction and observational technique, sometimes at quite an advanced level, but always in a way that is accessible to the intelligent amateur. The caliber of the contributions is uniformly high and the books have remained in constant use by both amateurs and professionals.

Amateur telescope making is the activity of building telescopes as a hobby, as opposed to being a paid professional. Amateur telescope makers (sometimes called ATMs) build their instruments for personal enjoyment of a technical challenge, as a way to obtain an inexpensive or personally customized telescope, or as a research tool in the field of astronomy. Amateur telescope makers are usually a sub-group in the field of amateur astronomy.