The Photon Instrument 5" Refractor Arrived Today: Snow Should Start Falling Shortly



All you skiiers in the Boise area should thank me. We had clear skies a couple of nights back, but since the new telescope has arrived, the clouds are solid, and it looks and feels like snow will fall this evening.



In terms of bang for the buck--especially impressive bang for the buck--it's hard to beat. It looks good, and what little chance I have had to try the optics so far, seems decent. There's an American flag flying a few hundred yards from us in one of the common areas of our subdivision. I can't count the stitches on the seams, but I am not far from that. A detailed test report is going to have to wait for clear skies.



Unfortunately, I have no 2" eyepieces to really try out the wide field capabilities of this scope, but I suppose that I will remedy that situation shortly.



Mounting it on the Cave Optical equatorial mount did not turn out to be too difficult. The tube rings use 6mm thumb screws, but they were too short to go through the Cave Optical saddle, so I had to run out and buy some 6mm hex head screws, and I borrowed a couple of washers from the neighbors next door. It is certainly quite sufficiently steady for visual or photographic use.