The field of amateur telescope making is considered an offshoot of the amateur astronomy community. Amateur telescope makers (sometimes called ATMs), as their name implies, are not paid professionals. They build their telescopes for the enjoyment of the hobby, or so they can make a personal contribution to the field of astronomy.
Wikipedia: link
Other References:
http://astro.umsystem.edu/atm/
http://www.atmlist.net/
http://www.crickrock.com/cgi-bin/webring/list.pl?ringid=TelescopeMaking;siteid=telescopemaking
http://www.atmsite.org/
