Sadly, Nils-Olof passed away on August 14, 2015.
This site is a copy of his original, which no longer exists.
The home page of Nils Olof Carlin
Since April -14 in Onslunda, a small village
in the south of Sweden, at 55.60deg N, 14.06 deg E
This page has been dormant for a
long time, but I hope to do some updating in time.
right now you can find:
- Some
information on how to calculate visual limiting star magnitudes based on a paper by Bradley E Schaefer
- Some
background information about visual limiting magnitudes based on a paper by H R Blackwell
- A
discussion of visual
limiting magnitudes in binoculars
- How
to calculate Couder screens to use in Foucault testing - in collaboration with Ken Slater
- A
few results that I have calculated - others may find them helpful:
When is
a center spot on a secondary mirror visible?
The spherical aberration of a paraboloid mirror
for objects of finite distance
Mirror edge supports - an attempt to find out just how
sensitive they are to small errors of adjustment. You may be surprised how
little it takes to cause serious astigmatism or other image degradation in a
thin, large mirror.
Some pages about
various aspects of collimating Newtonian telescopes:
- Some
advice on collimating
Newtonian telescopes
- A
new analysis of the autocollimator (revised July 2010)
- Some
myths
about collimating revealed
- The YACHT or Yet Another Collimating
Home-made Tool (April -01)
- Ideas
about collimating the secondary mirror using a laser with a holographic grid
(June -04)
Some Amateur
Telescope Making projects:
- How
to make extension
tubes for Barlows
- My
hacksaw style spider - with graphics by Olle Eriksson
- About
updating a Dobsonian-style telescope
- About
some of my telescope projects
- A new continuous-motion vibration-free
stepper motor driver for my Equatorial Platform -
new (Sept -01)(with revisions Dec -02) and unique
- A computer controlled Foucault tester built from old junked hard disk drives (Sept -01)
- A three-part cable sling that is simple to implement, designed to keep the mirror
accurately in place without introducing astigmatism (link added Oct -05)
På svenska:
- Att kollimera
Newtonteleskop - en förkortad version
- Vanliga frågor om okular
- Om ströljus i
Newtonteleskop
Some links:
- my article in Sky & Telescope June 2002 on line.
You might find it easier to read - at least as an introduction. - Jim Burrows' home page - you will find some really high-class optic theory here.
You can also download Diffract , a great Foucault test simulation program - Download
Aberrator, a startest simulation program by Cor Berrevoets
My collimation page translated: