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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