Stellafane and Beyond

How do you make a lens by hand to fix the Hubble Telescope? 

From amateur to professional, these optical engineers made lenses to the highest precision that are accurate to one millionth of an inch for the Hubble, Voyager, and Webb telescopes, making it possible to see images lightyears away while breaking new ground on telescope technology. 

“The best optics in the world are made with two hands - not with machines, not with computers, not with any of that” - Phil Rounsville is a professional optical engineer who specializes in making high precision optics for NASA’s space telescopes and other clients who need the best optical technology in the world. He shares his journey from amateur telescope making to professional optical engineer which all started because of a telescope  maker’s convention in Springfield, Vermont. The telescope maker’s convention is called Stellafane, a combination of the word Stellar - meaning “star”, and Fane, meaning “shrine to”. Phil’s career is not the only one that was set in motion because of Stellafane - so many other professionals got their start learning about making optics for telescopes from this little club in Vermont or the book written by the founder of the club in the 1920s. 

Some of the most important space optics were made by highly trained lens makers, or opticians. When the Hubble telescope was first launched the images came back fuzzy - there was an issue with how the lenses were focusing light. Engineers at NASA decided to send up a corrective lens and they needed the most highly trained specialists to make it, because it had to be done by hand. Phill was one of the trained opticians to be selected to make this high precision optic that had to be done by hand, and wasn’t much bigger than the size of a dime. It had to be precise down to one-millionth of an inch in order to work properly. 

How did opticians like him become so good at their craft? In the age of computers and technology are people still learning this craft? And, is it important to keep this skill alive? 

History: The amateur telescope making movement began in the 1920s because commercial telescopes of the time were expensive and unattainable for the vast majority of people. In 1920 a guy by the name of Russell Porter taught his first class on telescope making to a dozen amateurs. From there the hobby took off like wildfire as people learned about this little club in Vermont that was teaching people how to make their own telescopes, opening up possibilities for science exploration of our universe.

By introducing the ability for anyone to make a reflecting telescope, the founding of the Springfield Telescope Makers and the popularization of telescope building helped to accelerate technology to help us explore space. Many of these amateurs who learned from Russell Porter, either in-person or from his illustrated book, went on to work on projects for NASA, the military, and the CIA. From space telescopes to spy satellites and infrared military cameras, the participants in our film are some of the best at what they do, all because they got inspired and learned their skills from this small telescope making club in southern Vermont. 

One amateur telescope making club and its impact on Astronomy and optics in the last 100 years. 

A historic pink clubhouse in Vermont holds 100+ years of amateur telescope making history, and is the key to the development of astronomy, optics, and space science around the world. How did this amateur telescope making club turn astronomy into a science accessible to the every-day person and how will it continue to affect the larger world of science & technology, space exploration, and national defense?

Coming: 2025