Hacker News: chantepierre

New comment by chantepierre in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

chantepierre — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:47:26 +0000

Converting an app that started per-client deploy, single-tenant, cloud-ignorant and mono-node to multi-tenant, multi-node, cloud storage and a cluster of a few nodes.

On one hand, I regret not having thought it could find a market and I now have to do this and plan a migration.

On the other, I saved a lot of time going to customers instead of building the boring side first... So I don't know what to think of it.

I find that most of the development work is now "ops" instead of user-facing features (either addition, removal, or polish) and am a bit perplex at this.

New comment by chantepierre in "Show HN: Curiosity – DIY 6" Newtonian Reflector Telescope"

chantepierre — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 11:39:31 +0000

Here is a 6in f/5 travel truss dob kit by my friend :

https://www.printables.com/model/1325533-smallest-telescope-...

Wallace, my 6” f/2.8 :

https://www.printables.com/model/997327-wallace-6-f28-telesc...

And my tiny but mighty 3” f/4 : https://www.printables.com/model/1475113-76300-pocket-dobson

Wallace is built, but Gromit, a 16.5” F/3, is under progress. Working on the mirror and CAD :)

New comment by chantepierre in "The appropriate amount of effort is zero"

chantepierre — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:23:47 +0000

Re : running relaxed, it is said that the real marathon is the training you put in, and the race itself should feel like a celebration. I am not anywhere near elite level but felt that for a lot of races. The hardships of the training enables a state of deep calm, joy and feeling like you are flying the morning of the actual race. Nights before races are often very bad, like a last storm before everything clears and your mind is finally empty when you get into the corral. Then, with a clear mind, you proceed to run with joy despite being physically tired by the training and sleepless night.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 08:37:55 +0000

Hi, I could send you the link but as outlined in the post, this specific mirror was very out of tolerance..

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 17:24:51 +0000

Sure ! Here are a few links :

https://stellafane.org/stellafane-main/tm/index.html

How to make a telescope, by Jean Texerau, which was the absolute bible of this field : https://rexresearch1.com/AstronomyTelescopesLibrary/HowMakeT...

Here is a talk (in french, but maybe the auto-subtitling would work?) I recorded that overviews the whole process (2h30 though, and lacks info on the Bath) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt7lBLS0ueg

Here is Gordon Waite's youtube channel which actually shows a lot of the moves : https://www.youtube.com/@GordonWaite/videos

Best resource on the Bath (french, but should translate well) : https://gap47.astrosurf.com/index.php/technique/optique-inst...

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:25:50 +0000

This article gives great impressions of what you can see with your eyes through various sizes of telescopes : https://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/what-can-i-see-through...

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 15:19:34 +0000

This one is a bit of a joke with my telescope making friends, but ticks all the boxes of what I consider a real telescope. You can actually buy 76mm entry-level telescopes, but they often have an unstable mount and bad optics. Starting at 150mm, you already have a lot of punch under dark skies. Visual use, live digitally enhanced, or astrophotography are 3 different hobbies.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:58:35 +0000

Small mirrors with a very low F-ratio are also something that you need to grind yourself. I have a 6" f/2.8 telescope and a 8" f/3.5 hyperbolic + ross telescope, and both aren't commercially available while being small mirrors !

Progress on my 16" f/3.2 is currently stalled though.. a multi-year project indeed.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:46:53 +0000

Absolutely, second hand is the most direct path to getting a telescope.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 13:57:49 +0000

Thanks, it's heartwarming. It's my current longest living attempt at a blog

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 13:12:35 +0000

This is the first time I've seen a build of the ABSDBS in the wild, thanks for sharing ! Sadly an 8" f/4 mirror has a very narrow range of acceptable optical quality :/. It's too bad you ended up with a bad one. Maybe refiguring it would be a great followup project though

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:49:44 +0000

If you want to commit to a build, this one is thought to be user-friendly and a great first instrument : https://www.printables.com/model/1325533-smallest-telescope-...

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:45:07 +0000

I will correct the article, I've found great λ/6 or better spheres on Ali, but have yet to get a well corrected mirror. But starting from a λ/6 sphere instead of a flat glass blank saves so much time !

For this specific mirror, I was a bit disappointed, because it was specifcally advertised as parabolic, which made this project suitable, because coating costs trump all other costs for very small builds. Well it was 1.7x too much parabolic, and now I have to pay a coating :)

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:42:34 +0000

There is quite a vibrant community of young people grinding mirrors, it just has displaced to Discord. The "Observational astronomy" discord server has a lot of late-teenagers and young adults grinding. Our french Astro-FR server has people in their thirties grinding. But as you pointed out, garages are sparse and people seem to take shortcuts : finding bad pre-polished mirrors as blanks, slumping glass sheets to shape and continuing with fine grinding...

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 09:07:01 +0000

We buy pre-dug mirrors on Ali to refigure them, or dig and figure our own all the time. See Ali as a supplier of prepolished blanks :) . The l/6 I mentioned in the post are l/6 spheres, so they also need figuring.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:35:30 +0000

Rik's monolithic Cassegrains are the perfect example of the blend of amateur and high-end professionnal work in astronomical optics, thanks for linking it ! His amateur work is incredible, like this 16" CDK : https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/558284-a-400-mm-f1...

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:33:54 +0000

No, but that should be quite straightforward to add with Astro, I will check that.

  Edit : it seems that I now do have one : https://lucassifoni.info/blog/tag/astronomy/rss.xml

I am not an RSS user myself, I tested it with an online reader and it should be working.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:55:33 +0000

Your comment brings me back to my first mirror making adventure, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the jargon and acronyms used by the mirror making community... a few years later I internalized it and use it as if it was common knowledge. I should put little explanations or details in my posts.

New comment by chantepierre in "The tiniest yet real telescope I've built"

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:51:52 +0000

Hello, author here ! Other interesting builds or projects going on in the french amateur telescope maker community :

  - Sunscan, by the STAROS team : a fully integrated open-source solar imaging kit : https://www.sunscan.net/fr  

  - Eric Royer's binocular 24" dobson : http://www.astrosurf.com/topic/124758-bino600/  

  - The Slim400 by Laurent Bourrasseau : https://www.cloudynights.com/forums/topic/920950-the-slim400/  

  - Astrowl, an electronically enhanced astronomy kit : http://www.astrosurf.com/topic/151807-projet-astrowl-de-visuel-assist%C3%A9/  

  - The smallest, an open-source 6" portable dobson : http://www.astrosurf.com/topic/176898-un-dobson-150-f5-facile-%C3%A0-imprimer-et-assez-compact/

  - A dedicated astrophotography power supply : https://github.com/Antiath/Open-Power-Box-XXL

Of course there are many others but those are the one on the top of my head now

The tiniest yet real telescope I've built

chantepierre — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:35:49 +0000

Article URL: https://lucassifoni.info/blog/miniscope-tiny-telescope/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46241763

Points: 272

# Comments: 72