Size Does Matter

Among other things like flying and music, my husband is interested in astronomy.  Nine years ago he told me he was going to buy a telescope.  I’m sure I mumbled something about price and whatnot because that seemed to be my job, but he assured me he was not getting a really expensive one and that he had been saving up for it.  I’ll never forget the day it arrived.

It was a warm summer day and I am sure the birds were chirping happily, unaware of what was to come.  As my husband left for work, he reminded me that the telescope was going to be delivered that day and could I have them put it in his side of the garage until he got home.  Being home during the summer, none of this was a problem; I was happy to oblige.

Later on, I heard a truck in front of the house and walked out to greet the deliverymen.  I was sort of expecting a UPS truck, but instead saw a freight truck in the road.  Whatever.  It didn’t dawn on me then that this was a good example of foreshadowing.  I opened the garage door and showed the guys where to put the box.

As they wheeled the large brown carton up our driveway, I was a bit taken back by its size.  I closed my eyes and recalled the conversation, ‘not getting a really expensive one…’.   They placed the box inside the garage and started to walk back to the truck.  “Wait…don’t you need me to sign for it or something??”  I asked.

“Not yet ma’am, there’s another box to unload.”

Another box?  Well, imagine my surprise when the second box surpassed the first one in size...by a lot.  After quizzing the poor delivery guy several times whether he was sure this was also for us, I couldn’t sign the receipt quickly enough to get upstairs to the phone.  I’ll spare you the details, but was reassured that the telescope was not as big as the box (packing material...yada yada…).  

When all was said and done and assembled, the only home it fit in was on my side of the garage in front of my car.  It fills the entire width of my garage. 

After some time though, I did get over it.  My husband has had fun with his toy and so have many visitors to our house. If you are interested in astronomy too, the scope is a ‘simple’ Newtonian/Dobsonian with a 17-½ inch mirror.  He built a concoction that includes wheel barrow handles which allows him wheel it around the yard.  He also has several pieces of apparatus that allow him to transfer the telescope into the van to drive it to very dark places.  Amateur astronomers refer to these places as Dark Sky sites.  (Sadly for him however, I got rid of my van two years ago when I no longer had to cart kids around.  He wanted me to get another one so that he could cart the telescope around, but that didn’t happen.)

So the lesson I learned was not to assume that a low(er) price item necessarily means a small(er) item. Moral of the story?  Size does matter.

This is what I was expecting...

This is what we got... Shown here is the set up for a Dark Sky night in the Adirondacks.  When you point the scope up, you use the ladder to reach the eyepiece.  Also shown is the van, which no longer resides with us.