November 2001, Fred and I went out "camping" for the Leonid Meteor Shower. We drove out to a very dark BLM/Park service area in Central Oregon, ignored the no-tent signs and hopped a little fence. We darn near froze to death out there, but it was worth it. The meteor shower was one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life.

A little after that, my Dad's wife gave us a 4.5" reflector telescope for our birthday. She did not like the fact that the tripod was difficult and that the ocean scenes moved backwards. This scope was good to look at planets and the moon, and enough to get me interested.

Chris and Jennifer Vandenberg gave us the Audubon Field Guide to the Night Sky a really great book.

Pine Mountain Observatory, near Bend, was inspirational. They open up some dome enclosed scopes, but the best thing is that amatuers show up with their own scopes, and give tours of the sky, along with good running commentary. Many of these guys can get around the stars like you'd drive to work. (it took me 3 hours to find M57 on my own.) Yes, you can make it up in your non-4x4 car (this was awhile ago, check locally for conditions!) .. we made it up in a 2002 Prius with no ill effects. Just go slow on the washboarding. Check out Pine Mountain Observatory for information and schedule.

My Telescope I built a telescope. 8" mirror, f/6. Mirrors, spider, focuser, eyepieces from Sky Instruments     "First light" was Saturday, August 9, 2003. The stability of the Dobsonian mount compared to a tripod is great, and I love just being able to point at things w/o hassle. Optical gain from from the 8" vs 4.5" is about 4x, and optical quality is far above what the dept. store scope had. Sky view (stars, planets, nebulae, galaxys, etc) is very nice, and there's no vibration fuzzies. The moon was blinding at full aperture. I cut the aperture to about 2" effective with a hole-sawed board to look at the moon By the way, spend the money on a Telrad or other reflex finder.
	Lisa and the Telescope
My telescope design is based on the plans for the 10" Dobsonian design in Richard Berry's Build Your Own Telescope book. Only real modifications were to scale it down to an 8 inch primary. Cheaper, and the tube fits perfectly in the trunk of the Prius. The somewhat unique thing about my telescope is the stone-against-wood bearing surfaces on the altitude axis.. these were circular marble trophy bases I had laying around. They're heavy, but it's a nice smooth, solid feel. The base.. which supplies the azimuth axis.. is Teflon-pads against marble tile... doesn't work quite as well as the altitude bearing, and it's heavy too. It's a heavy telescope. I finally got the motivation together after going to a great lecture by John Dobson and star party down at WOU in Monmouth, OR.
	Fred, me and Telescope, setting up for Lunar Eclipse