by Paul LeFevre
I had a great experience over the weekend I just had to share with you folks.
My next-door neighbor had a Meade 4.5" reflector on a crummy EQ mount he purchased some time ago. He was pretty excited when he saw his new neighbor in the back yard with a big dob and a fancy LX200. He'd been trying to see things in his little Meade, and hadn't had much luck other than planets and M42. Over the past month I've had him over to the yard as I've been observing and imaging, and have been trying to share my excitment and wonder about astronomy with him.
Sunday afternoon there was a knock on my door -- it as my neighbor, Randy, with a huge grin on his face. He told me his wife had OK'd an $800 limit for a new telescope, and asked if I'd come to OPT with him to help him pick one out. Of course I said yes...
When we got to the store, he immediately spotted a Celestron C150HD refractor -- the big 6" achromat on a CG-5 mount, for $799. "Should I get this?", he asked. Remembering all that you fine TACos have taught me over the past couple of years, I started quizzing him on what he wanted to observe, how often he'd get out to dark skies, and if he wanted to take pictures/ccd images. His responses were galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters; as often as possible; no pictures. Given that info, I pulled him away from the admittedly impressive looking achromat, and steered him toward the Dobsonians. I explained how much more he'd see, how much easier it was to set up, how he'd learn to star-hop, etc. After a bit of discussion and some wheeling and dealing with the sales folks, he walked out the door with a 10" Discovery dob, a Telrad, and a copy of "Nightwatch" by Terrance Dickinson.
We went home and put the dob together. I showed him how to collimate it, and we installed the Telrad (eschewing the crummy little 6x30 finder it came with). Then we hauled the whole thing over to my back yard, and set it up next to the already-setup LX200.
I really had to resist the temptation to point the scope at some target and say, "See? That's M-whatever!" Instead, I showed him how to use the star charts in the book, helped him align the Telrad, and gave him a quick lesson about tracking stuff with a dob. Then I challenged him to find M41, the fine open cluster just south of Sirius. He found it in his book of charts, pointed the Telrad at Sirius, and star-hopped down to the cluster. It took him a couple of minutes, but the "wow!" when he found it was worth every second. Another astronomer had joined in the fun.
Before the night was over (early -- by 9:00 PM), he'd found 5 Messiers all on his own, starhopping from his new charts. He'd also viewed Jupiter and Saturn, and blinded himself on the moon. The scope has fine optics, and the views in the 10" f/5.6 instrument were very good. His wife had to call over the fence and remind him he had to be up for work at 5:00 AM to get him to go home, carrying the pieces of the big scope with him. He's anxiously waiting for the next favorable moon, and will make the trek out to Anza-Borrego with me in a couple of weeks.
Make no mistake, he had the enthusiasm already, and I just helped point him in the right direction towards a scope and some tools that will help him get the most out of observing. But it sure was fun to help somebody get the *right* start, and I hope I've helped him being something that will give him as much pleasure as it does me. Oh, and you GOTO haters out there -- please note that I encouraged him to get a DOB, as that fit his needs, rather than a computerized scope (which we could have purchased in his budget, but which would have been SMALL). See, I'm not totally corrupted...;-)