![]() This will soon be making its way around Arizona and maybe even beyond to share the night sky with others.Telescopes are great for scoping out massive stars, but they’re just as useful for looking at planets, and with a high-quality lens, you can get a clear view of almost every planet in the solar system. It is just as tall as my old 20" but a lot more aperture. ![]() The final telescope is a 28" f/3.3 dobsonian. After nearly five years of work the LAOT is finally completed and ready to show people the night sky. There have been so many people that have made this possible either through financial support through crowd funding or donations of equipment and materials. The mirror took nearly three years to complete thanks to the assistant of my friends at Starizona. It has made its way from Illinois, to Arizona for figuring, California for coating and back to Arizona. After some back and forth the glass was acquired and the Large Aperture Outreach Telescope (LAOT) was born.įrom 2018 to 2022 the telescope has been in work in various stages. It had a few bubbles in it so he could not use it for his projects. After a few weeks a world class optician reached back to me stating he had a 28" cellular mirror that had been sitting for years. I contacted several opticians asking if they had anything available, even if it was less than ideal. In early 2017 I started reaching out through my contacts in the industry for a piece of glass, anything 24" or larger. The only issue was it had to be done on a major budget and crowd funding. This scope was going to be done from the ground up to everything I was looking for. Something big and fast to keep it as low to the ground as possible. Then I started thinking about the ultimate scope for my outreach efforts. It was an excellent scope as one would expect from Obsession, the only issue for me is it still wasn't the end goal. ![]() I did and for several months it became the main scope for outreach and it certainly did the job. Not long after moving back I had a chance to purchase a friend's 20" f/5 Obsession. In 2016 I moved back to Arizona from California, I started up with my old outreach group doing more events under the Arizona skies. This is certainly large enough but it still wasn't that same experience as the 25" years before. It was the scope that started my outreach program and has shown thousands of people the night sky. ![]() I started my venture into larger aperture in 2008 with a 16" dobsonian which I still own. I want people to experience the view through an observatory level scope. For me, that isn't a big dealer and makes me want to do it more. As we all know large scopes are difficult in many aspects and not always something we want to deal with for a few hours in a less than ideal location. I always wanted to share that experience with as many people as I could, everyone should get a look through a large scope. I have always loved large telescopes, ever since looking through a 25" at Orion many years ago. I am sure many of you in this forum also feel the same and strive for the same goal. My main goal for astronomy is outreach and to share the night sky with as many people as I can. It is a volunteer programs that usually sees 30,000 people a year (last few years have been a little weird obviously). Aside from working for Sky-Watcher I also run my own outreach program called Focus Astronomy.
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