[abellhunter]

Part #4 The Observatory Gets Bigger

By 1991 i was getting a server case
of aperture fever. Just up the mountain
from Anza is the beautiful Mountain
town of Idyllwild. This is where
the legendary Coulter Optics
was located. They made the most
affordable dobs on the planet
and always ran adds in Sky &
Telescope.

So for $995 dollars i bought the
17 1/2 inch model and installed
a pair of digital setting circles.
Now i had my dream scope! The new
big dob had its own observatory,
with a 11 X 11 roll off roof.
This sat right next to the C-11's
observatory and made it easy to
go from scope to scope.

With the big scope, i could really
resolve those globular clusters
and hunt down those faint galaxies.
The galaxy clusters were just so
much fun to do. And in a few years
i had seen nearly every object
plotted on the old Sky Atlas 2000.0
By now everyone in Anza knew me as
"The Astronomer". It was known as
the place where people could come
by for a look through "a real big
scope".

i loved going to the Orange County
Astronomers Star Party with the new
17 1/2 inch. Just put that big red
tube on a mattress in the back of
the pick up, strap her down and go.
At this time it was the biggest
scope in the lower pad area and
always gave the best views.

Lance aka "abellhunter"