When I was a teenager back in the early 1980's most of my friends had pictures of Samantha Fox on their bedroom walls, but I was a little different and decided to put pictures of famous observatories on mine! I guess you could call me a typical nerd. Fortunately I had extremely supportive parents who encouraged my strange hobby and I was encouraged to join the local club;
Clacton and District Astronomical Association (CDAA for short). The club was, and still is, very active and had an obervatory nearby which housed an 8.5" reflector and I often used it when other members were around. However I really hankered after my own scope and I eventually obtained a 6" F8 Reflector on a Charles Frank equatorial mount, again courtesy of my parents (I'm sure a few paper rounds were involved too!). The scope was fantastic and was mounted on a sturdy equatorial which stood on a hefty pedestal. The whole thing was very solid.
6" F8 Reflector and run off shed - circa 1980
It came with two very basic Kellner eypieces giving around a 40 degree apparent field of view. I am not sure I really knew how to collimate it and I remember taking apart some of my eyepieces lenses to clean them so I suspect the optical quality could have been better. However looking back on some of my observing reports as published in the club magazine, I seemed to be able to track down and inspect some fairly challenging deep sky objects.
Observing Report as published in 'Apollo' magazine - circa 1982
I used to store the scope in the shed and eventually got fed up with brushing the cobwebs off before lugging the whole shebang outside. So one summer my Dad and I put together a rather nice run off shed observatory. Painstakingly crafted to my Dad's 'back of a fag packet' design, it had a felt roof and was painted white to keep it cool in the summer.
Telecope with 'friend' - the club's 6.5" reflector
I used the scope and observatory regularly and even hosted the occasional 'outreach' event (before the term 'outreach'was invented) for family or my parents' friends. The scope and obervatory was in regular use for around five years, until I went to University, and then sadly the whole thing had to be dismantled, but it put me on the road to a lifelong passion for observational astronomy and I shall never forget the thrill of using this scope fantastic scope.
More observing reports - circa 1982
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