A Note from Nick About His Telescope....

That's me w/ the new scope!  It performed wonderfully. My mod to add the QuickFinder worked great. Skies were pretty smoky but M13 had that intangible 3d quality. 

A friend of mine won a 20mm 100 degree eyepiece - I put it in my scope and WOW. At 60x I could get M31, M32, and M110 in the same field. I did not want to give it back. 

Joshua Says Hello!!

Joshua writes: for Jupiter,  M13, Saturn, Mars and
the dumbell nebula, among other targets
(fickle New England weather permitting)

Joshua lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

More on a 10" and 12.5" Telescope . . .

The altitude bearings and rocker box sides are coming together
for John's 12.5" (R) and Rich's 10" (L) strut telescopes.
Both of these have the Easy Transport Telescope option.

A Note from Len in Pineville, Louisiana...

Hi Dennis. 

Here's a preview... Around here, St. Augustine grass is very common and as it ages, it builds a thick and soft underlying mat of grass and leaders. The furniture glide feet on the scope aren't tall enough to reach the solid ground without the middle of the ground board resting on the top of the grass / mat, which reduces stability. I bought three hockey pucks off Amazon and replaced the feet with them.

A nice thick layer of contact cement on both the puck and the wood, let it dry and they're not coming off. If I have to down the road, I'll drill a hole and put a screw through them. As a bonus, if it rains at a star party, they're waterproof and will hold the scope a little higher out of any potential standing water. I also suspect with the larger "bearing surface", they (technically) might make the scope a bit more resistant to vibration.

Len

A 10" and 12.5" Telescope . . .

Here's a 10" (L) for Rich and Newberry, Florida and a
12.5" (R) for John Howell, Michigan. Both of these telescopes
have the Easy Transport Telescope option and strings.

I'm getting head-start before leaving town for a couple of weeks vacation!!

A 16" Kit Ready to Ship . . .

Ron's 16" kit is ready to ship to Crafers, Australia.
This kit is completed except for Ron's own optics
and includes mirror cell, focuser, spider -- even
a Sky Commander .....

A First Light Report from Joshua . . .

Joshua sent along this note about his first light event.

First light luckily coincided with a shadow transit on Jupiter and the GRS on view. Both jumped right out at about 100x. The seeing quickly went south, alas (we have unsettled weather this week), but it was a very promising view. I think the primary kept its collimation on the journey, and with the help of a film-canister collimating tool I got the secondary very close to perfectly aligned before going out. Pictures when the weather improves. - JR