Most of the lyrics in Candace' Song have some memory bound up with them. Here's an example. When Candace was about 10, she was already a night-owl. I wanted to find something to help me connect with her, and I knew something night-oriented would be best. So I bought her a telescope. One of Wal-Mart's finest...a 60-mm refractor. One night I spent a half hour locating the Andromeda Galaxy. When I finally had it in focus, I had her look. She looked in the eyepiece and saw a vague smudge of gray and asked, "you call that a galaxy?" I took the challenge and said, "alright, Kid, you're on!" I then embarked on BOB:
B.O.B. (which stands for "Big Optical Bucket") is a 10-inch newtonian reflector on a dobsonian mount. That means it is built out of scrap-yard materials (except for the optics) using inventive methods. For instance, here is how I marked the altitude bearings so that I could cut them straight (perpendicular to the axis of rotation):
After $800 and four years, BOB was finally finished.
14-Dec-2010. I just noticed: I didn't get any pictures of the actual finished telescope. For years! Mega-oops! Here they are.
