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 Here I am right after getting home with the mirrors. |  Specs are on the edge, Galaxy Optics 18" technically it's an f/4.45 . |  Here's my setup while determining the exact length to cut the tubes. I focused on a telephone pole 1/2 mile away. |
 And here's the pile later that night with freshly cut poles ready for the first setup. |  All set up and ready to roll. See how fast I can set it up? |  One last shot before the first view, feel the anticipation building? |
 Ahhh! First light. Can you guess the first target? Hint: I'm looking East at about 10:30pm June 6 (Northern Hemisphere) | Another hint? It's a big juicy globular cluster guaranteed to please. Yes, M13! It almost knocked me off the ladder. I love this scope, besides pulling in 324% more light than my 10", it's balanced and well behaved. Very smooth throughout the whole range, stays where you put it, the 6 truss design turned out very well (details to come) as did the cam clamp fastening system. So I have a few loose ends to tie up. Mount the finder scope, construct a mirror box cover, stain the secondary cage, baffle the secondary cage, add electricity for a fan and secondary dew heater, make a bag for the trusses, and send the mirrors off <sniffle, sniffle> to get recoated. This project was a lot of fun. I enjoyed coming up with solutions to the different set of problems a larger scope presents, like speeding up setup time while reducing weight and packaging it small enough to fit in my car. Clear skies! |
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Final version July 12, 2002: All issues are resolved, time to enjoy this thing! | ||
 Set up for second light (actually first light from dark skies). Cousin Ray getting his first look through *any* scope checking out the crescent moon. |  Myself later that night very happy with the performance of the new scope. What a change from the 10"! |  Set up in the snow waiting for darkness. |
 All the pieces ready for assembly. |
 Fills up the trunk pretty good. |  Just waiting around. |
 The anticipation is building at evening twilight. |
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