Made On Earth
Slap Shot to the Moon
Stone had always wanted a telescope and
had even thought about building one. After he
and his wife met a group of amateur astronomers on a trip with the Johnson Space Center
When Jeff Stone and his wife, Susan, decided
to build a telescope, run-of-the-mill building
materials just wouldn’t do.
“The project was very intense, especially
the mirror-making part,” he notes.
“My wife has been playing hockey since
junior high school and had a pile of sticks
available,” says Stone. “So it seemed like the
logical material to use.” The scope is an 8-inch
f/6 Dobsonian, and what instantly sets it apart
is that it’s built primarily out of hockey sticks.
Stone worked in the space shuttle division
of the Mission Control Center at Johnson
Space Center, and would take the telescope
in to share with his co-workers.
“Most of them are leftovers from broken
ones my wife collected over the years,” Stone
explains. “There are a couple of special ones
that were used by players from the Houston
Aeros of the late 1970s, including Mark Howe,
one of Gordie Howe’s sons.”
“During shuttle flights, there’s a short
time every orbit that we lose communications
with the vehicle, so the controllers take a
quick break,” he says. “I’d leave the scope on
the sidewalk outside so we could run down
to have a quick look at the moon, maybe
a planet or two, or a bright double star if we
were lucky.”
Stone says he’s made many friends and has
had lots of interesting conversations thanks
to the telescope. “Building it, especially out of
hockey sticks, is one of the most rewarding
things I’ve ever done.”
—Rachel Hobson
Adam Lisowski
20 Make: makezine.com/29
