"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
ups.com...
The stars up here are just amazing, so I've gone and sold off my
Celestron for a big 14 inch dob. A light bucket like this will be
fantastic for Thomas in a couple of years. He'll have the kind of
skies I always wanted when I was getting my first views through a
telescope, only he'll see what we could never see in the wake of city
light pollution!

I can't wait to show him Saturn for the 1st time!

I stumbled upon an astronomy weekend seminar some years back, when a comet
was still visible. The participants had set up their telescopes all over an
open field with virtually no light pollution. Some had really large
Dobsonians, one a 24" monster that required the viewer to stand on a
platform atop a series of twenty or so steps. The view was amazing. I was
able to see the pressure rings off the front surface of the comet's nucleus,
all sorts of colors in a variety of nebulae, and many of the really distant
galaxies were visible as ellipsoidal. It took the gent about an hour to set
up the scope and the platform--a bit much, IMO. I'll stick with my 14"
Maksutov-Cassegrain. It's bulky, but fits in the back of a typical ute.

Who's Dob did you buy?

Max