Caleb's Telescope

Opening the boxes...

The Optical Tube,

Everyone gathered around to see,

:-D

Elijah seeing how tall he is next to the Tube,

Putting it all together...

Looking through the EZ Finder,

Caleb and his 'New Toy' LOL!

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How I got my Telescope:

It all started when I became interested in astronomy in July of this past year.

As I studied more about astronomy, I realized that I would enjoy having a telescope. I remembered an article I read in the "Answers Magazine" about how to choose a telescope. The author of the article recommended a Orion SkyQuest XT6 Classic Dobsonian, so that was the first one I looked at online. My parents told me that they would give me the money they were going to spend on my birthday presents, which was most of the money I needed, and I would have to earn the rest.

So in September I decided the way I would earn the money for my telescope was to make wooden spatulas to sell.

At first, I was considering the Orion SkyQuest XT4.5, because it was cheaper than the XT6, but when a family we are friends with was staying at our house in early September, I changed my mind.

The reason behind my decision was:

I talked with the father of the family about the two telescopes, and he thought I should get the XT6 because it has a bigger aperture, and so he helped me make up my mind to get the XT6.

Then in October my Grandmother bought the first two spatulas I had for sale, and later she requested 35 more! I made six spatulas, then she decided she only wanted as many as I needed to buy the telescope. So then I made six more on Thanksgiving day, and she bought all 12 two days later!

I bought my telescope the same day she bought the spatulas, and it came nine days later!

I tried it out last night for the first time, and I saw:

Jupiter and four of it's moons,

The Orion Nebula,

The Pleiades,

The Double Cluster in Perseus,

Mars,

And the Andromeda Galaxy.

I am really excited to have a telescope, and I am really enjoying it!!