|
4.5" Cooke f/15 refractor. In year 11 at high school we found this in pieces in the science lab cupboards, got permission to clean and re-assemble it, and spent the first night trawling through the Milky Way dreaming of all the other civilisations out there among the stars. The first sight of Jupiter and Saturn through this scope is something I'll remember forever as the optics were textbook perfect.
Carl Sagan's Cosmos was on the telly at that time, of course...
The scope was a beautiful brass antique, with Ramsden eyepieces and a phosphor bronze mount with a weight-driven clockwork drive that tracked very nicely, setting circles and slow motion, donated to the school by Mt Stromlo in the 1930's. We soon acquired some modern Kellners and enlisted the woodwork classes to construct a tripod, concrete slab and roll-off shed for it, this was in operation before I finished year 12.
Went on to make my own 4.5" f/4 "shoebox" Newtonian, 6" and 8" followed, then a 12".
|