By Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian
May 29, 2026
Editor’s note: The following article is about what a small group of Uvalde High School students accomplished with help from a local amateur astronomer and telescope maker, Michael Robinson.
The idea started several years ago when Uvalde High School science teacher Amy Strecker took local amateur astronomer Michael Robinson up on his offer to help high school students build their own telescope, including grinding the mirror from scratch.
The project began last school year through the Uvalde CISD ACE after-school program, where participating students met once a week.
Robinson donated a 6-inch Russian-made Astrosital glass blank for the project. The students met each week to work on the mirror and take it through the four stages of telescope mirror making: rough grinding, fine grinding, polishing, and figuring.
According to Robinson, in order for the mirror
to produce clear images of stars and planets, it would have to be accurate to a millionth of an inch. This level of accuracy is achievable through the use of a Foucault tester, which indirectly measures the mirror’s surface with a beam of light reflecting off the mirror, then cut by a knife edge at the focus.
Despite some setbacks, the mirror was finally finished and sent out to be aluminized at the end of April 2026 to a company called Ostahowski Optics in California which also works with prestigious organizations like NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense — donated the service for the project.
The aluminizing process which cost over $200 donated the service for the project.
Uvalde High School word working teacher Dereck Albrecht worked with Robinson to build the tube, telescope cradle, and mount.
After several weeks of rigorous optical testing, once the mirror had been aluminized, it was installed into the telescope.
On Thursday, May 28th, the telescope was brought out to the high school soccer fields for its “first light” during the senior sunset event. Students and parents were able to view the craters of the Moon.
Each of the participating students who worked on the mirror signed it, and several also signed the back of the telescope.
The telescope will remain the property of Uvalde CISD and will be used by future students to observe astronomical objects for many years to come.
