Stellar Irony

[Dave In Vermont]

I am suggesting this thread for tales of astronomical ironies. As my example, allow me to indulge in my story:

I have a wonderful 200mm F/4 Newtonian that I bought from Orion back around 2000. These particular scopes were only sold for a short period of time before Orion found out these were not the mass-produced Chinese ones they thought they were - these were the rarer ones with superb optics by the master optician over there. Oops! And I lucked-out and got one before they vanished. And the optics were/are indeed superb.

Fast-Forward to earlier this year:

The mirror was in need of re-coating. So I sent it off to an outfit I'd researched and found to be known for excellent work and fair prices. And they did the secondary for free if shipped with the primary. And upon return I inspected these and the work was beautiful! So now it's time to re-assemble and collimate. But first I needed to center-mark the primary. Snarling that this hadn't been done in the first place, I removed the hard, plastic cap that fit into about 10mm of the tube-edge, and set it down on a chair.

Something caught my eye. I picked up the plastic cap and inverted it. And there, smack-dab spot-on, was a center-mark. On the inside of the cap. Yup.

Clear Skies!

Dave