[Chaos-l] still amazed

[E. Allen Davis]

i was thinking this morning (oh no!) and wished to share something. 



we all are fortunate to have nice equipment and to be able to share views with the equipment.  i am blessed to have an Obession and a Tak.  But I was thinking.  Still...more than half of my observing time has been with a 15 inch telescope that Leon Knott made for me.......i only paid 1350.00 for that about 22 years ago. Tim was also in a similar postition with Leon when he received his 12.5. 



it was and is a great mirror....and i spent 14  years solid using that scope and using it and using it...with my trusty Sky Atlas 2000.  the rest of the scope was truly hand made...with the secondary holder a section of pvc pipe and the trusses heavy steel tubing.  the mirror cell was all handmade...with heavy duty rubber bands to give tension on the supports.  some lead weights inside to balance.  But it was a great scope that worked!!!  it gave great views....it still does...i did use it about 4 years ago at the MASP when melissa cruised around with it.  What a wonderful way to get started with viewing the heavens.  it was for all intent and purpose my first scope. 



why in 1992 Tim, Billy Gladson, and I drove to Stellaphane overnight to arrive on a muddy Friday...only to have it clear up Saturday.  We moved to the top of Breezy Hill, and that night showed views of the heavens to an appreciative crowd.  i had at least two serious offers from people to buy the telescope and could have made a profit i think.  but i have profited much more than $$$ from that scope.  it set my foundation in star hopping and i learned to appreciate what a great mirror can do. 



seeing Ray Moody at the SRSP Saturday..we talked about being at Stellaphane that year.  We only saw each other in the dark and then finally in daylight two or three years later at the East Coast Star Party. 



Years later that scope showed me the impacts on Jupiter when Shoemaker Levy plowed into the giant planet.  i shall never forget the thunderstorms clearing that evening, and by some miracle being able to see a much bigger storm going on about 500 million miles away.  That was pre internet and email days and some of us were all on the phone screaming and exclaiming like kids..."Go out...you can SEE IT!"  



i finally purchased a rock of an eq platform from Tom Osypowski so i could track...and it worked like a charm.  So then i had star hopping and tracking.  i used to use two fingers together on my Sky Atlas to approximate the width of the Telrad circle, and that is how i judged distances in the sky.  and i was good at it if i may say so!  



My Obession has a great mirror, and the Tak refractor is terrific, but my foundation is in the 15 inch and years of manual hopping.  i don't feel bad about having GOTO or computers now....i love it...but i still fondly remember those times. 



And I realize that right now, like at SRSP this weekend...we are creating memories.......allen 


E. Allen Davis 
 starstorm151 at embarqmail.com 

 "M'Illumino              "I am enlightened 
 D'Immenso"              by the immensity." 

   -Ungaretti               -Ungaretti 

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