DOWN MEMORY LANE

Fall has always been a favorite time of the year for me due to many varied reasons. Summer ends, school starts, the yard grass quits needing to be mowed every week and at least 100 other things that don't come to mind just at this moment. But one thing that I do remember very well is a vacation Lucy and I took in November 1997.  We met friends in the state park at Ft. Davis and embarked on a week long adventure that included learning cowboy camp cooking, the history of the military installation at Ft Davis, and an introduction to astronomy which was hosted by a professional observer from the Mc Donald observatory near Ft. Davis.  This individual, and I'm ashamed that I don't remember his name, came to the Indian Lodge where we were staying to present lectures on astronomy and the sky in general.  Then for two fantastic evenings he brought his 20 inch DOB to the lodge to give everyone interested a hands on look at some of the things he had been telling us about.  It was a perfect time of the year, month, week to see some very impressive things in the night sky.  I'm not going to bore you with the fact that it is really dark all around the Ft. Davis area,  but let's just say the darkness seemed as natural as anything you could ever imagine.


There were 14 individuals in the group and on that first night 3 or 4 decided it wasn't worth the effort to bundle up and go out in the night so we all got a fair amount of time at the eyepiece. Remember, I told you the instructor had a 20 inch DOB. That meant everyone had to climb up a ladder to look into the eyepiece. I don't know if that was really good or bad but it sure cut down on the number of folks that came out the second night and that increased the time that the rest of us had to look.  And what an array of objects we had to look at.  Here is a list of the major targets we saw both evenings----Andromeda, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Mercury.  An amazing 5 planet lineup that I will never forget.


There wasn't an experienced observer in the group--except the instructor---so most of us didn't really understand what a privilege we were experiencing.  And to make it  a little bit worse, objects didn't stay in the eyepiece very long so it was a continual up and down the ladder effort with the instructor going up regularly to re-point the scope.  He didn't give us any hints about how to keep the objects centered---as I think back I think it was his was of keeping control of the situation.  Naturally the planets were spectacular but when we got to Andromeda, it simply blew most of us away.  The instructor had a very good scope and evidently some very good eyepieces because I don't believe I have ever seen Andromeda any better since that night.


Lucy was sick enough both evenings that she didn't go out to observe.  But the morning after the second night I announced to her at breakfast that I wanted for us to have a telescope.  At first she said "us?" but within the next couple of years she began to come around.  In the meantime I read a lot of articles about astronomy and telescopes and even joined a club in an attempt to decide what kind of scope to purchase.
My daughter Cathy and me did a lot of bino observing during those months.  In April, 2000 I made my decision.  It was going to be a Orion 8 inch reflector with an equatorial mount.  I called the Orion sales office and within a week UPS delivered the scope right to my doorstep.


I won't go thru all the assemble process etc but would you believe that Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were still in a very close grouping in the early evening sky?  How lucky for a beginning observer to have those bright and easily located????targets in the sky.  It made the learning curve of using a equatorial mount a little easier because you could at least see the desired target in the finder scope.  I was satisfied with those objects and a smattering of other fairly easy things---M8, M20, M6,and M7 for instance but it didn't take me to long to get the hankering to see if I could actually find something like a galaxy.  Besides it was mid May by now and Jupiter and Saturn were below the horizon after sunset.  For some unknown reason M104 got my attention so I started setting up my scope in a location that would at least allow me a chance to see it.  That didn't happen for several nights but eventually one evening I just happened to get it in the scope.  I can't explain the thrill that came over me and I burst into the house to announce what I had found.  I only owned a 26mm eyepiece at the time so the view wasn't that outstanding but it was definitely M104.  Slowly but surely I became more familiar with the equatorial mount and learned how to use it better. 


A lot of water has gone under the bridge since Nov. 1997 and I have made my was thru a couple of 12 inch Dobs, a 15 inch Dob, and now I am up to a 20 inch Dob.  I still own the 8 inch reflector on the equatorial mount but time has damaged the gearing in the mount and it is useless.  I did make a small Dob mount and converted the reflector to a "kinda" Dob but it was never completely satisfactory.


winter, spring, summer, and fall are all my favorite times of the year the observe.  Each one has its good and bad points but all are worthy of my efforts.