Started with a 60mm Refractor?

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

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...

My first scope was a 60mm refractor. I don't specifically remember it being a
Tasco, but it was certainly along those lines. I was probably 8 or 9 when I got
it. It didn't hook me on astronomy, but I used it on and off for several years.
As a kid, I liked science of all kinds, but hadn't specialized yet g.

When I was around 12, somebody gave me a 6" Newt that had been in a fire. This
thing had an aluminum tube and an equatorial mount made of pipe. I cleaned it
all up, repainted the tube and got the mirror recoated. I replaced the mirror
cell with one from Edmund, and within a year had purchased an Edmund equatorial
mount with an AC clock drive. That was a great scope, and I used it for a number
of years. In the late 70s, when I was in college, I converted the mount to goto
and added a CCD imager and autoguider. There's a picture of that setup at
http://www.cloudbait.com/history.html .

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

"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...

my first scope was a home built 80mm refractor (about 20 years ago). lots of fun!
--
md

Subject: Started with a 60mm Refractor?
From: (Jon Isaacs)
Date: 11/6/2004 10:04 AM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:



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...
*****************************
My first scope was a 40mmx40 refractor, then a Sears 60mm blue tube EQ
refractor... That was in 1976!

Chas P.

My first scope, if you can call it that, was given to me when I lived down
in Ramona,Ca.

It was given to me by a guy who had not only worked on the Altas rocket
engines, but before then had been at white sands too. What he gave me is an
optical tracking device white in color, some kind of elec. contacts on the
base, has built in filters and target sighting screens ( for want of any
other term ). The way it's made I think it could make it through a nuke
blast. It's only about 6 or 7 power, but it got me viewing the sky. I still
have it.

First real scope was the orion DSE 12.5 f4.8 in Hawaii.
Had to sell it to help pay for move back to mainland ( from what I head, it
not sits unused in a school storage room )

I was given a Stargazer Steve 4.25 F9 Dob and everyone here knows about the
Babylon 8 project.

The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond.


--


The Forgotten
http://home.inreach.com/starlord/forgotten.htm


SIAR
http://starlords.netfirms.com
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord

"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...




---
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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...

60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term loosely now)
was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a gift many years ago and
don't remember doing much with it at all. The views pretty rough by
anyone's standards, but it was OK for terrestrial viewing. I was very
much into space and astronomy as a kid, but it never really occured to
me to go out and actually try to *see* any of these distant things I'd
been reading about.

As if just over an inch of aperture wasn't small enough, it was stopped
down, too. I can't find it now to check, but I believe the objective was
at least some kind of glass, as opposed to plastic. There were no
eyepieces as such - just a small lens mounted in the end of a chromed
tube which you slid in and out to focus. IIRC, there was another lens at
the other end of this sliding tube, which resulted in an upright image.
The "mount" consisted of a foot-high tripod and some kind of plastic
clip which held the OTA in place.

But yes - this was the one that (re)sparked the interest for me, albeit
several years later. It sat in a box somewhere in my old room at my
parents' house, until they brought it over to my new place earlier this
year. Getting a decent telescope had been in the back of my mind for a
long time, but I'd never really had the space for one until recently.
Anyway, I saw this little red scope sitting there and thought I'd try it
out on the Moon. The mount is probably still at my folks' place, so I
fashioned something resembling an alt-az mount out of shelf brackets,
screws and Blu-tak! To be honest, I could see more detail on the Moon
with my unaided eye than with the scope, but I decided right then that I
*had* to get something bigger and better.

Not to do things by half, I went ahead and got myself an 8" SCT, which
is still opening up a whole new world for me. The last few months, I've
been making up for lost time in a big way. My only regret is that I
didn't do this a long, *long* time ago!

--
Steve Maddison
Den Haag, The Netherlands
http://www.cosam.org/

60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term loosely now)
was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying glass stuck to
one end and then because nothing was in focus, I had to imagine what the
objects looked like!

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

"Steve Maddison" wrote in message
...
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...

60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term loosely now)
was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a gift many years ago and
don't remember doing much with it at all. The views pretty rough by
anyone's standards, but it was OK for terrestrial viewing. I was very
much into space and astronomy as a kid, but it never really occured to
me to go out and actually try to *see* any of these distant things I'd
been reading about.

As if just over an inch of aperture wasn't small enough, it was stopped
down, too. I can't find it now to check, but I believe the objective was
at least some kind of glass, as opposed to plastic. There were no
eyepieces as such - just a small lens mounted in the end of a chromed
tube which you slid in and out to focus. IIRC, there was another lens at
the other end of this sliding tube, which resulted in an upright image.
The "mount" consisted of a foot-high tripod and some kind of plastic
clip which held the OTA in place.

But yes - this was the one that (re)sparked the interest for me, albeit
several years later. It sat in a box somewhere in my old room at my
parents' house, until they brought it over to my new place earlier this
year. Getting a decent telescope had been in the back of my mind for a
long time, but I'd never really had the space for one until recently.
Anyway, I saw this little red scope sitting there and thought I'd try it
out on the Moon. The mount is probably still at my folks' place, so I
fashioned something resembling an alt-az mount out of shelf brackets,
screws and Blu-tak! To be honest, I could see more detail on the Moon
with my unaided eye than with the scope, but I decided right then that I
*had* to get something bigger and better.

Not to do things by half, I went ahead and got myself an 8" SCT, which
is still opening up a whole new world for me. The last few months, I've
been making up for lost time in a big way. My only regret is that I
didn't do this a long, *long* time ago!

--
Steve Maddison
Den Haag, The Netherlands
http://www.cosam.org/

"Eddie Trimarchi" wrote in message
...
60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term loosely now)
was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying glass stuck
to
one end and then because nothing was in focus, I had to imagine what the
objects looked like!

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

You should have used a paper towel roll. lol

Best regards,
Bill

You should have used a paper towel roll. lol

Geeze Bill, where were you when I needed you?

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

"Bill Becker" wrote in message
...

"Eddie Trimarchi" wrote in message
...
60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term loosely now)
was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying glass stuck
to
one end and then because nothing was in focus, I had to imagine what the
objects looked like!

--

Regards,

Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.astroshed.com
http://www.fitsplug.com

You should have used a paper towel roll. lol

Best regards,
Bill

Eddie Trimarchi wrote:
60mm? What luxury! My first telescope (and I use the term
loosely now) was a Tasco 30x30mm. I recieved this scope as a
gift many years ago and

30mm? Luxury! I used to have a toilet roll with a magnifying
glass stuck to one end and then because nothing was in focus, I
had to imagine what the objects looked like!


Wow... I'm surprised you had the time to build it, what with that
50-mile walk to school and back (uphill both ways, of course)
followed by the 10-hour shift down the mine. g

I had several toilet/kitchen/foil roll scopes too, but most of them
were zero magnification instruments, used predominantly for playing
pirates and such.

--Steve