Ahhhhhhh...

This is going to be a funny, funny morning.

I'm trying to clean house, and one of the problems is Jake's telescope, which I got him for Christmas but which is still sitting around the living room in various boxes. It's been too cold out and we've been too busy to really dive into learning about the telescope. But I figure if I assemble it, then I can dis-assemble it to fit in the carry-case and get rid of all these boxes.

So now I've got all the various parts strewn about. I am very good at following directions, but this is making me laugh because of the way I am dealing with the fancy words: "Orient the equatorial mount as it appears in Figure 1, at a latitude of about 40 degrees...Thread the counterweight shaft into the equatorial mount at the base of the declination axix until tight..." Which I read out loud, then 'translate' to myself, out loud, into words I can understand, "Ok, set down the mount thingy, facing this way, like in the picture...put the heavy weight-thing on the pole over here..."

Yeah. I need more coffee.

The Mount Thingy

Figure 1

The Source of My Brainpower

EDIT: I am SO my father's daughter: "Parts list, my ass! They don't tell you what anything is. It's loose, it's not tight...I don't know if I'm supposed to have locking washers, but I don't fucking have 'em!"

EDIT #2: Mission accomplished:

If you're going to have a telescope in a tiny apartment, this is the one to have. Mind you, I still don't know how to use it, but at least I can put it away. And the optical tube is a bit wiggly on the mount, so I will need to call customer service tomorrow and get me some of those locking washers that I'm missing.

The Boy and I should have lots of fun this summer using this thing.

Huzzah.