My first telescope

I had a craze for telescopes since I was a kid. I tried a lot of lens combinations salvaged from cheap binoculars and toys. But nothing worked out. But still I enjoyed astronomy very well by finding out new constellations and reading astronomy related articles. Then one day my uncle Francis gifted me a telescope! I was on cloud nine! It was just a toy telescope without a tripod. But for me it was the greatest telescope in the world! I couldn’t wait till it was dark. Then I reached my backyard,holding the telescope in my hand, I pointed it to the moon. The moon was jerking rapidly and I could not see anything. Then I realized that why a tripod is very essential to any telescope. The next day I started making a crude tripod with sticks cut from our garden and some linen threads. The great ‘goto’ mount was ready by the evening. Again I went to the backyard, turned the telescope towards the moon. Cool! The moon did seem bigger than usual but not up to my expectations. I wanted to see the craters in close up but the full moon was well inside the view. I realized that I need a bigger telescope to see the amazing sights like craters of the moon and rings of saturn! There started my search for a real telescope!!