Tom's Telescope Collection Grows

Tom is infected with the astro bug. His progress has been sure and steady only held up by weather, and the availability of the SUG. The Sidewalk Guy has not been available as of late but some time was carved out the past Saturday afternoon to help Tom do some simple maintenance on his new (used) telescope collection. Tom is building his hobby smart finding good used scopes which will provide years of enjoyment to himself and others.

Here is Tom with his latest purchase a nice Orion Deep Space Explorer 10" Dob. This is a oldie but in fine shape. Look at that giant 9x60 finder and custom skull & crossbones wood box that doubles as a scope cradle when in your car going to the dark sky sight or SUG outreach event! This scope is patterned after the Coulter line of Dobs with a Sonotube OTA and vented particle board mirror cell. Funky & fun! But it is a bit more refined. I will have a post on Coulter's soon. We did some cleaning on the floor boards and bearings and the movement is nice and smooth. Next up will be a mirror cleaning when Tom is done doing his homework on this. No SUG does not do all the work as Tom must know how to care for this telescope. We will also be cleaning out the old grease from the focuser unit. Today we mounted his Rigel Quick Finder and did a mirror lineament with everything moving easily into place and terrestrial targets snapping into crisp focus . This scope came with a nice 1.25" color filter set and 35mm eyepiece.


We also spent sometime working on his C8. Rigel Quick Finder mounted and sighted in, right angle finder fixed, mounted and sighted in, equatorial wedge adjusted, and the light shield custom fitted. I would say this scope is ready to go!

Tom has plenty of scope here and is ready to explore the sky from is backyard and share it with others on the sidewalks.




This novice Minnesotan observer also has his own unique set of camo covers for his scopes. These clash perfectly with just about everything including Tom's Viking's colors. Like a Minnesota duck hunter in a duck blind these scopes will be seeking celestial critters that fly by over head. He may live out west here but he's all Minnesota at heart!