Michael Kalshoven

Long ago, when I was a 6 year old boy, I looked up at the sky while stepping out of my parent's 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 years old I got my first telescope. A small telescope 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 centimeter refractor, which was quickly exchanged for a 11.5 inch Newton. I have explored a lot with the 11.5 inch Newton telescope.

Unfortunately, I had little interest in my hobby for a couple of years 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 centimeter 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 a, to me, new generation Dobsonian telescope: The truss Dobsonian.

Considering my woodwork experience I decided that it might be easy to craft a similar Dobsonian telecope for myself. But it was not as easy as I thought it was, because there was more to it than working with wood. I found a lot of information via astronomical forums.