First Light

There is significant event in the life of every telescope. A telescope is really nothing more than a light collector. The light from celestial objects is gathered and brought to a point via the configuration of the primary mirror (picture a cone) and reflected into the focuser by the small secondary mirror. There is no magnification… that is handled by the eyepiece. The first time the scope is used to collect light is appropriately called “First Light” and it kind of represents the telescope’s birthday.

On Sunday 09/15/19 I broke it down, reassembled it at my son’s house and George’s telescope was presented to him and was used for the first time. This date was chosen because it was the night of the full moon. Actually the “official” full moon was on the 14th but it was close enough. The full moon is probably the easiest object to find and observe. Since moonrise was already past George’s bedtime (school tomorrow and all that…) we had a fairly short session. The next full moon is on Oct 13 and moonrise is earlier, around 7:00 pm so we will have another event (weather permitting) and try to get some images as well. But I’m happy to report that the scope performed perfectly, coming into focus with no issues. Nice clear sharp viewing.
Here’s a pic of George and his dad with the scope…

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Well done Grandpa!

David - I’ve followed your build from the beginning. Congratulations on making a truly functional heirloom for your grandson. This photo puts it all into scale - about twice as large as I had pictured originally. What an incredible tour de force.

Hey David, hope all is well with you. Been quite a while since I've been on SMC, and it's good to see some familiar faces along with all the fresher folks.
It's especially good timing being able to let us share your First Light, as I too remember the beginnings as you went thru the challenges for some of the 'moving parts'. A bit of irony, as my wife and I were out for a drive today (we've moved to the N Ga mtns coincident with my retiring) and she brought up a star gazing night Oct 4 I registered us for at Brasstown Bald, the highest peak in the N Ga mtns.
Glad to see this project come to fruition...so, what's next?

Excellent! What a treasure for them. You probably have enough pictures to write a book about bringing the scope to life.

JKJ

David, I've followed your project from its beginning, and your posts are always a treat. This update is especially so. As Jeff says: an incredible tour de force! Thanks for sharing.

Glad to see that this whole project was very worhwile. Pretty amazing, the whole process. Now ever better to use.

Very well done, David.

If you are wanting to do photography, I think the best time is when shadows along the terminator reveal surface detail. I like the time between the new moon and first quarter for the most interesting and identifiable features. While the full moon looks nice for eyeball viewing, the shadowless light of a full moon doesn't work very well for photography.

Here's an example of the lunar alps. My "telescope"is actually my camera with a 400 mm telephoto lens plus a 2X and 1.4X teleconverters to give a total FL of 1140 mm. I had to reduce the image size so that it would fit.

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During the three year process of making this telescope, I have been getting advice and guidance from the members of an online amateur astronomy and telescope building forum (I would not have been able to get this done without their help as my knowledge of astronomy and telescope making when I decided to make tis scope was nil.)

Several of those people also suggested the quarter moon as the best for capturing detail. So my son has arranged a "star party" (or more accurately a "moon party") for the night of 10/5 which is the next quarter moon. Several of George's friends will attend. There will be a barbecue and then a lunar observation session. I will attempt to get some images using a cell phone camera and an adaptor that allows the phone camera to be mounted in the telescope's eyepiece.

Congratulations Grandpa! What a great gift!
Fred