I sold vacuum cleaners when I was in college – Electrolux, in case you’re wondering – and it’s no exaggeration that door-to-door sales taught me survival skills more essential to modern life than did the several universities I attended. “Don’t wait for the customer to come to you. Go to […]

By James L. Chen Ten years ago, I had my Brandon 130-mm f/8 apochromatic refractor mounted on an early 1950s Unitron equatorial mount equipped with a mechanical Polarex clock drive. The mount was big, heavy and bulky, and the clock drive was at best cranky (pun intended!). It was a […]

This article was written by Norman Butler, the author of Building and Using Binoscopes, of Springer’s The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series (https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319076881). Norm is also a long-time contributor to this magazine. Indeed, two of his previous articles are featured as this issue’s Looking Back installments. Springer describes Building and […]