Sumerian Optics

Michael Kalshoven at La Palma, Spanje

Long ago, when I was a 6 year old boy I looked up at the sky, while stepping out of my parents car, wondering what the twinkling lights were in the sky. Yes, they were stars. But what is a star? This is the earliest memory of my fascination with that world above us. Since that time, I needed to know everything related to astronomy, so I read many newspaper articles, books and magazines to find answers to all my questions.

My First Telescope

When I was ten I got my first telescope. A small lens viewer that my father made. A first step to explore the world above us. A few years later I finally got a real telescope. A 6 inch refractor, which was quickly exchanged for a 11.5 inch Newton. I have explored a lot with the 11.5 inch Newton telescope.

Unfortunately, for a couple of years, I had little interest for my hobby and my astronomical activities were very low. In the meantime, I found a new interest: woodwork. I designed and made furniture like cupboards, beds and kitchens etc.

Years later I bought a 20 centimetre F-4 Newton telescope. The F-4 Newton telescope requires an accurate collimation. I was not really familiar with collimation and I went looking for information on the Internet. While looking I was confronted with, according to me, new generation Dobsonian telescopes. The truss Dobsonian.

Considering my woodwork experience I decided that it might be easy to craft a similar Dobsonian telescope for myself. This was not that easy, because there was more to it than working with wood. I found a lot of information via the Dutch astronomical forum: The Astroforum.nl. To my surprise I also found many old friends via this Astroforum again.

Self Construction Dobsonian Telescopes

The first homebuilt telescope was a 40 cm truss Dobsonian. This was followed by a 20 cm Dobsonian Travel telecope in the superb design of Pierre Strock. This was the first time that I brought my 20 cm Dobsonian Travel (as hand luggage) to La Palma, Spain.

Meanwhile, I built two other telescopes as a pilot project to receive useful information/feedback to improve the design, quality, stability etc. This was all necessary for starting my own business in Dobsonian telescopes.

Now I am fully engaged in the development and creation of commercial Dobsonian telescopes. I try wherever possible to meet the requirements and needs of my customers. A Dobson telescope is a very personal product and each person has different requirements. People want a solid and easy to use telescope. To me, the most important part of developing and creating telescopes is: quality.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who contributed and supported me in the start-up of my business in any form whatsoever . I greatly value all the help and advice. I could not have done it without you. My biggest thanks go to Steven Lantinga, who has designed this beautiful website and has provided professional photos of my three Dobsonian models.

Michael Kalshoven,
Vijfhuizen 2010