It all started
when my sister and brother-in-law asked me to go along with them to my
nephew's "astronomy outing" for his school. I have always been interested in
astronomy and even borrowed a friend's 6" Coulter once about 10 years ago.
All I remember was the Orion Nebula and the
Andromeda Galaxy
were awesome and Saturn was a disappointment. I guess I expected NASA
photos, but don't we all in the beginning? Also the thing was way out
of balance and I couldn't figure out the Telrad either.
Anyways, a
Local Observing Group had
set up shop in the school's field for one evening. Unbeknownst to me then, it
was there that my inner ATM child had awakened. The weeks that followed had
me submersing myself with commercial telescope information until I figured
out the one for me. It was a typical sonotube dobsonian mounted Meade. Now all I
had to do was to convince my wife that this new hobby of mine would be a
"family thing". Another problem transporting the bulktitude (or bulktitube)
to dark skies while still having enough room for the fam.
Digging
a little deeper I stumbled upon some Truss Telescopes on the web. Ahhhh
Haaaaaa! (See links at bottom for a few inspiring sites) Construction started
immediately (12/1/99) on my 10" Truss telescope (I figured I had already used
a 6", an 8" would be better, but a 10" would blow me, er um I mean would blow
"us", away).
Heavens Above - for Tracking almost
every object in orbit, including spectacular IRIDIUM FLARES and naked-eye
viewing of the International Space Station and the MIR Space Station!
Please email with questions or comments (remove the
*no-spam*)