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I remember my first views of Saturn and Jupiter In 1951. My telescope was not much inproved on Galeleo's
It consisted of a spectacle lens with a focal length of about 60 cms in a cardboard tube and the lens out of the view finder of an old brownie box camera mounted in another tube that could be slid in and out for focus. The magnification was about 25x
I was studying light, lenses and mirrors in science at school and worked out how to use two lenses to make a telescope. The components were salvaged out of old junk I found in grandpa's workshop. I can't remember where I found the cardboard tube but I do know I later cut it up to make coil formers for a Xtal set and that is another story. 2/6 a week pocket money did not go very far after I had paid my bus fares to get to school.
The view was good enough to see jupiter as a circle with its four moons and Saturn was a circle with lumps on it.
Note: I also saw venus as a cresent.
That was the end of my astronomy interest till about 1990 when I bought my first real telescope. A 114 cm Tasco reflector.
Barry
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