[Lvas] What Was Your First Telescope, And When?

[Douglas Phillipson]

Fred Rayworth wrote:
>
> All,
>  
> Just thought I'd try to get some activity going here, as it's been 
> rather dead lately.
>  
> So, I'm just curious what experiences all of you have had out there.
>  
> What was your first telescope and when did you get it? What could you 
> see with it?
My first scope was a Celestron Classic orange tube "C8".  my dad had it 
for 25 years and hardly ever used it so I convinced him I could get some 
use out of it.  It had manual setting circles and a clock drive, that 
was it!  Can you imagine I actually used a scope with no gadgets, 
computers, etc?  How primitive I was back then!  When I started out, I 
had no clue what I could see in the heavens.  So I bought a book called 
"The New Astronomy and Space Science Reader".  Whoa, it opened my eyes.  
But I didn't know how to use the setting circles.  So I googled for 
"telescope setting circles" and Google indeed was my best friend.  I 
found an article describing the process.  That changes my astronomical 
life.  I actually could find objects!  And while looking for good 
resources on using the C8 I came across some other improvements, really 
neat improvements.  Computers that could not only help me find objects, 
but computers that could point the scope at the objects.  My life was 
never the same after that.  I was hooked.  Me being a "Gadget Guy" and 
discovering I could combine my two favorite hobbies, computers and 
astronomy.  I was in heaven.  I bought a 15 inch Discovery Dob off of 
Ebay and mounted motors and sensors on it and it would find me anything 
and everything I wanted to see, fast.  No longer would I waste time 
hunting for those cool objects, now I could spend all my time VIEWING 
all the objects I desired.  Instant gratification.  I was truly in 
heaven looking at the heavens.

Doug P