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by Jane Houston
Saturday night, October 9th was the final star party of the year on Mount Tamalpais State Park in Northern California. The San Francisco Amateur Astronomers present a star party for the general public each new moon Ssaturday night from April through October. The star party is fronted by an astronomy lecture in the historic serpentine slab-seat ampitheatre built during the depression. The Great depression in the 1930's, that is.
I love these public star parties because a great crowd attends the talk and then descends on the astronomers, 200, 300, sometimes even 400 strong. Lines snake from each telescope. We all really enjoy this time each month to share what we know with those who are anxious to learn and see some distant and ancient light up close and personal. There are always some students with clipboards, hoping to get some lab credit for their astronomy classes at a couple local colleges. Sky lovers of all ages scope-hop, returning to their favorites again and again, month after month, year after year. Last night there were several students from the two Dobson "Make your own Telescope" classes which began last week in San Francisco. I invited the two classes up to the mountain to poke around different telescopes before deciding on which size was best for them. Several students took me up on my offer.
Now I have quite a collection of reflectors from two 6 inchers (one a sunscope) up the range to 17.5 inches. I have one little Orion 80mm Short Tube refractor, but I've never entered the world of SCT's, until last night, that is.
On Friday, I drove down the California Coast, on the Pacific plate side of the San Andreas fault. It was a really scenic drive but my mission was to go pick up a telescope. A retiree and his wife were disposing of most of their belongings in order to move to Sun City, Arizona. They got my name from the San Francisco Orion Telescope and Binocular Store in San Francisco, where they purchased the scope. Thanks guys!! I owe you one!
Anyway, the telescope they wanted to give me is an 80's? vintage C-8, with the bright orange tube and a milky white Schmidt corrector plate - now clean after some advice I got hours later from the Friday evening Telescope Making Workshop volunteers at the Chabot Observatory in Oakland California. I also picked up a 16 inch mirror blank, a suitcase of Celestron eyepieces and accessories. The sturdy equatorial wedge, funky locked-triangle tripod, filters, observing stool and three big bags of astronomy books. The bags of books haven't even been catalogged yet, but I spotted Starlight Nights, The Adventures of a Star-Gazer by Leslie C. Peltier, old Telescope Making magazines (including the one with my friend and local mirror maker Earl Watts on the cover called How to Build a Dobsonian Telescope. One book that caught my eye was a 1978 hard cover Apollo Over the Moon, A View from Orbit which has hundreds of lunar photos. A 1973 Norton's Star Atlas, covered in a brown shopping bag book cover covered with plastic, indicates to me that this scope was well used once. Another lunar book, Pictoral Guide to the Moon, by Dinsmore Alter has over 200 photographs and drawings and photographs.
Well less than 24 hours after accepting the astro treasures, I was on my way to my monthly star party. First light, first new first light, that is, was next on the agenda. I loaded the three scopes, "Little One" the Refractor, Strider, the reflector, and Tang, the brand new old orange SCT in my small car and off we drove, 100 miles to the mountain. My fiance' Mojo was positively drooling thinking about the night ahead. He was also excited about the C-8.
Set up was pretty fun for me. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! It will take a little getting used to for me to aim that darn 6 x 30 finder. Oh, heck, I'll just put on a telrad base and be done with it! And it will be alot of fun for this old dob user to master some celestial mechanics. But I have to admit, observing the occulatation of the star by Jupiter last night, showing lines by the dozen Uranus, and aiming at Saturn and a few dozen objects was pretty darn fun! I could run to my other two scopes, and nudge them into compliance, while Tang, juiced up, but draining my car battery, was tracking merrily though the Solar System. I can't wait to sit and sketch the moon, without the "nudge nudge" I am used to incorporating into my sketching sessions. I wonder what that will feel like?
Tang will soon sport a little brass plate honoring the donors. I'll send them some stories of the adventures of Tang the Orange Telescope, and I'll send some pictures of the joy his gift will be bringing to many budding astronomers, including the hundred or so that shared first light last night.
When my new friends settle in Sun City, they just might show up at the local astronomy club some night. I gave them a care package of information in exchange for their generous gift of Starlight Nights.