I discovered the hobby as a teenager when I dug my Dad's old Tasco reflector out of the basement. I joined the Omaha Astronomical Society shortly after and realized I wanted more aperture. After working two hard summers of corn detasselling, I saved up enough cash to purchase a used 8" Cave Astrola which a club member was selling. I gladly paid the gentleman his asking $400 price, since the next closest scope I could find was a 6" Dynascope for nearly the same price, and not nearly as feature laden. The scope served me many years until I recently upgraded to a more versatile and (slightly) more portable 10" SCT. By this time however, the scope had too much nostalgia value and I've found myself unable to part with it. Indeed, to celebrate my 20th anniversary of ownership, I had a machine shop completely rebuild the mount, and in doing so, I had all of the shafts, pedestal, legs, everything sand blasted and powder coated white. While my restoration has not been completed entirely, the scope already gets high praise everywhere I take it. In these days of SCT's and Dobs, the German equatorial mounted Newtonian attracts some curiosity. Incredibly, the mirror still sports its original coatings, yet the views are still incredible.

Jeff Huston

Have a Cave? Send us photos and/or its story and we'll publish it here!