Pretoria Centre of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa

Telescope building

We will show you how to design and build your very own telescope. Classes are conducted every Saturday afternoon from 14:00 at Parktown Boys High School in Parktown Johannesburg.

Click to download a map with directions to the School.

Some of our ongoing projects...

Contact:

Johan Smit at 072 806-2939

or

Percy Jacobs at 082 498-4680

for more information.

Useful information regarding telescopes - part of a talk by Johan Smit at the February 2018 meeting

D = Aperture (diameter of main mirror/lens of telescope in millimeters)

Johan Smit gave a talk "Basic Optics" at the February 2025 monthly meeting. You can download a pdf of his talk here.

Click here to download a useful spreadsheet to determine optimal eyepiece selection for your telescope: download file (look for downloaded file "eyepiece_guidelines.xls" in you computer's "downloads" location)

Telecope making links

Good introduction and mirror making...

A very handy online telescope calculator from the Naperville Astronomical Association