The club’s new 10 inch f/6 Discovery Dob arrived last Friday, April 13!  I was able to assemble it and get out to Savage with it both Friday and Saturday nights.

The scope seems to have pretty good optics.  I was pleased.  I put it through its paces by observing lots of spring edge-on galaxies with a few planetaries mixed in for good measure.  The results were really good.  Folks will be able to do some pretty serious deep sky observing with this scope.

I was not overly impressed with the stiffness of the rocker box and it was fairly hard to move in the altitude direction.  But these things are simple to improve upon.  The tube, mirror cell, JMI 2" focuser, and 50 mm finder all were just fine.
Bob Bunge star tested it on Saturday night and pronounced it a fairly typical commercial mirror: a slightly turned edge and a bit of astigmatism.  But nothing too serious.  As I said before, I thought the views were pretty nice.

(Editor’s Note:  A custodian for the new 10” scope has not yet been assigned.  Information about who to contact to borrow this instrument will be made available as soon as the details are finalized.  Check the newsletter, website, and e-mail list for updates)