14" F4.5 for Tom S.

A 14" F4.5 for Tom S., in Chesterfield, Missouri, is coming
together. Here the mirror board w/mirror and top ring are complete.

Tom asked for a "custom color" and matte finish. It looks nice.

Some Astronomy in Ireland and England . . .

Having just return from a trip to Ireland, England and Scotland, I thought I'd share some photos of the "astronomy and telescopes" we visited. We traveled from 8/5-9/3. I hope you find these interesting.

The 28" refractor at the Greenwich Royal Observatory in London.

72" Mirror from the Rosse Telescope in Birr, Ireland.
The speculum mirror resides in the London Science Museum.

At the Blockrock Castle Observatory with
Alan Giltinan.

Linda and Me on the 0-Meridian in Greenwich, England.

The 14" Meade SCT at Trinity College in Cork, Ireland.

The sundial in William Herschel's garden Bath, England.

william Herschel's 6.25" Newtonian reflector at his home
and workshop in Bath, England.

Lord Rosse's 72" Newtonian telescope, Birr Castle, Birr, Ireland.

72" at Birr. The "Leviathan"!!

A note from Stephen and his 16" Telescope . . .

"Eighteen years ago, at the age of 16, I was very big into astronomy.  I had used various scopes and decided I wanted to use the first money I earned at my first job to buy a 16" Meade Starfinder.  Unfortunately, I hadn't taken into account the problems with transporting such a large scope (I live deep in the city of Houston and need to get my scopes out to dark skies in a vehicle).  As I grew up, life brought me away from astronomy.  After my wife passed away last year, I decided to reconnect with some things I used to enjoy, including astronomy.  Which brings me to, "what do I do with that old 16" scope sitting in my dad's garage?"  First I thought about selling it, but then the idea came into my head about possibly finding a way to remake it as a truss dob.  Then I heard about the fine work done by Dennis Steele at Dobstuff.com.  After lengthy discussion with Dennis about my needs, he assured me he would be able to convert my scope into a version of it that would be able to be transported to my club's dark site in my sedan.  I shipped Dennis my mirrors and ordered a truss conversion, along with all the great mods - Moonlite focuser, Destiny curved spider, the works.  Less than 2 months later, my scope arrived.  Last night I took it out to the dark site for the first time.  Assembly was easy.  First-time collimation was not (nothing Dennis could do about that unavoidable aspect of reflector design), but the collimation knobs and screws were very easy to manipulate, and we got the job done.  The views were amazing.  Motion was extremely smooth, more so than some smaller scopes I've owned.  Dennis' work was worth every penny.   I would recommend Dennis to anyone looking to give their old scope an extreme makeover."

Stephen,
Houston, Texas

John's 16" telescope -- not the "string option" is installed.

John G., in Pomona, California -- and his
16" F4.5 telescope completed from one
of our kits. Nice job John!!

Tom's 14" strut telescope -- Custom Color...

Everywhere I go I look for astronomy/telescope related points-of-interest. During my trip to Ireland, the U.K. and Scotland this month -- I'll look for some of these sights.

BUT, you can still contact me via email. I'll be in the evening everyday. So, email and say hello...

We're off to Ireland, Scotland and the United Kingdon
this month. Keep an eye on my travel blog.

During our trip, we expect to visit Lord Rosse's 72" telescope at Birr Castle.
The telescope was built in 1845 and is now preserved as an exhibit at the castle.

Birr Castle, central Ireland.

A closer picture of Rosse's 72" telescope.

We'll be visiting the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England.

We also hope to get to Stonehenge .

Crispyn, from Tuscon, Arizona
and his 10" F5 Telescope

"Hi Dennis,  I promised you I would send a photo of my completed telescope and here it is! Complete with a dobstuff 6 point mirror cell, a destiny curved spider, a 10 inch f5 mirror refigured by Steve Dodds at Nova Optical, and a kineoptics HC-2 focuser.

I am yet to take it out under the stars but from what I've seen just testing everything out, it looks nice and crisp. Your mirror cell works great and I haven't had any trouble with it. Surprisingly, the whole telescope is fairly light, probably in the realm of 50 pounds or so. I can remove the tube from the mirror box for easier transportation which is something I absolutely needed.

Looking forward to first light!

Crispyn"