Started with a 60mm Refractor?

On 06 Nov 2004 15:04:18 GMT, (Jon Isaacs) wrote:

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

Your experience parallels mine, 60mm for years, then to a C8. I
figure many people went that route when the Celestrons took off.
However, I never went Dob or widefield because I started using
setting circles (which if you are properly polar aligned
are serviceable on the SCTS)and rudimentary star hopping.
Once I realized that under light polluted skies magnification was
needed to see any deepsky object, I stuck with the SC.
I also like double stars and my first C8 had a good diffraction image.
I had the first C8 for 10 years and it was the main learning scope.
When I first saw the Orion nebula, I was shocked by how much better it
looked in the C8 compared to the 60mm. I even used the scope
(during one brutally cold and windy night) through a double-glazed
bedroom window just to see if it could track down M-79. I found
it! Not a great view though.
From then on, I've owned about every type of scope that can be
imagined, including every SCT except Meade's 16." I pretty much
know the pluses and minuses of each one, and I still come back
to the SCT as the best all round amateur scope. However, now that
Goto is finding it's way into every scope imaginable, that may change.
-Rich