Here I continue my tale of woe regarding the fate of my childhood telescope, a Celestron C8. Where I pick up the story is ten years later while looking for items on “Offer-Up” I came across a 90’s era Meade 10″ SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope). I believe it is a model 2120.
This telescope is very similar to my old Celestron in many ways but with a slightly larger aperture at 10″. However, it has similar electronics and other mechanical elements.
I was able to purchase the telescope for only $300 which included a tripod, eyepieces, an equatorial wedge, and other miscellaneous accessories. That’s a phenomenal price for a scope of this type.
One thing that I failed to consider was just how heavy a telescope of this type was. The optical tube alone isn’t that heavy but when you add the fork arms and base it gets up there. I think it’s nearly 60 pounds. It’s not a simple task to hoist this up onto the wedge and tripod. At least not for me and I’m in pretty decent shape at 61 at the time. More about that later.
So first things first let’s get this scope out under some stars and see what it will show me. Well, this is where reality shines its ugly head in the form of light pollution. Pun is most definitely intended…
Light pollution is the bane of most astronomers. Yet it should be the bane of everyone as it prevents us all from seeing the beauty of the night sky. You can find out how good or how bad your light pollution is by searching for one of the dark sky maps that are publicly available. If you really become interested in promoted and protecting dark skies and fighting light pollution please visit the website below.
The moon was out so it was the obvious first target. At about half full I had the opportunity to see some detail at the terminator…
No not that terminator. The terminator I am referring to is the moving line that divides the daylight side and the dark side of a planetary body…in this case the moon.
What became immediately apparent was that something was off with the scope. I was unable to achieve good focus and some colors shouldn’t be there. What I discovered after a bit of research was that my scope was out of collimation. I won’t bore you with the details but essentially this means the mirrors in my scope were not aligned correctly and thus were unable to bring an image into good focus. The good news was that it’s correctable and that’s what I set about doing. I acquired a set of Bob’s Knobs that allowed me to adjust my secondary mirror and better collimate my scope. Check out the link to learn more about collimation.
I enlisted help from a member of my astronomy club (NOVAC) Northern Virginia Astronomy Club to assist in the collimation process. Thank you, Arlen! If you can, get involved with your local club. Local astronomy clubs will have mentors and they are more than willing to help get you started and continue to assist you in this hobby as they did for me. Plus you’ll be able to share your wonder of the cosmos with other like-minded individuals.
After the collimation, my views were much better. I still need to fine-tune it a bit but I was able to see some of the bands on Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. Which reminds me of something.
One question that is commonly asked of me “What got you interested in this hobby?” and like many that I’ve asked this question, their answer was their first views of Saturn’s rings. Seeing those magical rings floating around that distant orb made my 10-year-old brain become mesmerized. How is that even real? Who couldn’t look at that and not be gobsmacked?
To this day I still get chills seeing it and imagining what it would look like if I were orbiting it in a spaceship. My dreams of spaceflight were dashed after we made it to the moon first and thus ending the pissing contest between the US and the USSR. (soapbox dismounted)
