Started with a 60mm Refractor?

"Jon Isaacs" wrote in message
...
I wonder how many of you who post and lurk here started with a 60mm
refractor
or something similar? I would like to see a show of hands, lurkers can
Email
me privately...

Here's the story of my first scope.... ( a repost)

My first telescope:

There it was, a fine, fine refractor on a silky smooth mount with a
selection
of finely crafted eyepieces. The whole thing was a bit dusty and there
was
even a bit of dirt on the objective but that was simply due to a bit of
neglect
by the current owner. I couldn't read the maker of this fine piece of
equipment, but that didn't matter, I was going to have a

TELESCOPE!

So, I reached into my pocket, extracted my wallet, my wad of cash just
itching
to be spent, I looked at the owner square in the eye and said:

"Would you take Five for it."

The rapidity with which he said, "Yes" indicated he was done with this
fine
optical jewel, but it was mine as soon as the $5 passed between our
hands.

Home I went, excited and enthusiastic, anxious for first light.

With great care I hosed off the objective and cleaned the sand off the
rest of
the scope. The eyepieces, well, they needed cleaning but at least they
were
glass and brass and after a quick disassembly and some Windex they
passed
light...

Now the mount, it was lacking a piece or two but nothing that could'nt
be
fabricated with a hacksaw and a hammer.....


Fast forward to the Painted Rock Campground outside of Gila Bend, AZ,
early one
fall morning.

The moon was no where to be found and I had found Venus, bright and
sharp and I
could actually see that it was not a star. By this time, I had improved
the
mount but the scope still would not stay still or stay in place...

And then, there it was, was it a comet? that flash of light as I wobbled
past
it, unable to steady the scope adequately.

Just think, a comet near Venus....

Of course it took me about 15 minutes to convince myself that I was only
seeing
an errant reflection of Venus in the poor optics of this once new 60mm
nameless
department store refractor.

But by that time, I had happened upon something even more marvelous, I
wasn't
sure what it was, it wasn't till sometime later that I was really sure.
A tiny
bit of white haze surrounding some bright stars...

That morning, I had found for myself the Great Nebula in Orion and I was
hooked. That faint bit of nebulosity, that white haze, it was enough.

I was a goner.

Sometime later, that telescope was stolen by some fool from the second
story
balcony of our duplex.

And sometime after that, after another 60 mm refractor at another garage
sale,
came my first serious scope, a C-8 and sometime after than came another
garage
sale special, a Cometron Jr. 125mm ST Newt that was to put me over the
hump as
an enthusiastic starhopper.

And then came the first Dobsonian, a Pirate Instruments 8 incher with a
lead
weight that doubled as the mirror cell and counter balance...

But that first cold morning in the dark skies of the Arizona desert I
got that
glimpse of faint haze that has fueled my excitement ever since,
sometimes I
think my quest is simply to repeat the exitement of that first moment
with new,
fainter objects and bigger scopes and darker skies.

Yes,

Jon is getting a Telescope!!!

jon isaacs

My first scope was a 60mm f/15 achromatic refractor, and I LOVED that
scope!!! I was stunned the first time I was actually able to SEE the
rings of Saturn. But the views were not that great with the supplied
..965" eyepieces and Barlow, so quickly, a hybrid diagonal and a bunch of
1.25" Orthoscopics, and a decent 1.25" Barlow replaced them. I also
modified the rather shaky mount & tripod so that, without it getting any
bulkier, it was surprisingly steady.

Of course, aperture fever set in after about five years or so (probably
would have set in earlier, but I had a pretty pristine dark sky site at my
in-laws' ranch some distance west of Phoenix (and light pollution wasn't
much of a problem in Phoenix then, anyway).

But I sold the 60mm to a friend at work (who loved it too!!!) after I
bought an equatorial 8" f/6 and 13" f/4.5 Dobsonian in the early 1980's.
But I missed that little scope so much that I actually bought another,
higher quality, 60mm f/15 OTA, and, using Richard Berry's Build Your Own
Telescope book, I built a Dobsonian mount similar to the one he built for
his big 6" f/15. I built that tripod so sturdy (the legs were made from
2"X2" 's), that I could probably have balanced my TRUCK on top of that
thing... In fact, I still have those tripod legs (AND the OTA), but the
mount has since been replaced with an Orion equatorial mount, which now
sits on a big-wheeled JMI Wheeley Bar, for the ULTIMATE in grab and go.
Roll it out, do your thing, roll it back in.

I don't use it very often any more, because over time, the aperture fever
took me way on up the scale (and with increasing back problems, back down
the scale part of the way), so about as small as I ever go anymore is my
94mm Brandon APO, which I will never part with, either. But once in a
while, I pull that 60mm out and down memory lane we go (strange thing, but
I was just fiddling with that 60mm OTA this morning, and came in here, and
lo and behold, here is this SAA thread about 60mm scopes!). The memory
lane tours usually go straight to the Double Cluster, if it's well
positioned, or the moon and/or planets, depending on if THEY are in
season... The Double Cluster became one of my favorite objects in the old
days with the 60mm, and it has remained so with ALL my scopes... Some
things never change... But many of them DO get better with aperture... A
60mm scope is often a launch pad to bigger and better things...

Still, NEVER sell a 60mm short. There are a LOT of things you can't see w
ith one, but they are GREAT for a starter scope for a young beginner. Not
too much for a young, inexperienced observer to knock out of alignment,
pinpoint stars, rings of Saturn, some detail on Jupiter, as well as the
dance of the Jovian moons, and even a lot of DSO's are visible; just not
to the degree that I soon began to crave... And, on the right mount, they
can also be a great grab and go scope, though not as good overall for this
purpose as an ST80, perhaps...

--
Jan Owen

To reach me directly, remove the Z, if one appears in my e-mail address...
Latitude: 33.662
Longitude: -112.3272