An observing event was held last night (February 19th 2026) on the campus of Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC, featuring a custom made 29-inch telescope by Don Brooks. Don has been active in amateur astronomy for many years, and is currently the President of the Cleveland County Astronomical Society.

It should also be noted: Longtime CCAS member, Steve Davis also attended the event last night. Steve works at the “Bare Dark Sky Observatory at Mayland Earth to Sky Park” and is an operator of the 34-inch telescope. The facility is located in Burnsville, NC and the 34-inch telescope is one of the largest public telescopes in the southeastern US.

I’ve been friends with both Don and Steve for more than 30 years.

The telescope:

It has a 29-inch mirror which was produced by Coulter Optics in California during the 80’s. No one seems to know “definitively” how many 29-inch mirrors were produced. Don is aware of “possibly” eight to ten. However, I communicated with an amateur on (February 20th 2026) living in Minnesota who has one in storage, which would add to the count.

Don built everything (other than the mirror and the focuser) which was an extraordinary task. A mirror this size has incredible weight and the mirror cell must be built strong enough to properly hold and secure without causing stress to the mirror. Building only the mirror cell is an engineering feat in itself.

I can’t properly convey just how difficult building a telescope this size would be, and the mechanical skills required.

Below: Don gets the telescope ready for the evening.

The mirror cell designed and build by Don, is both beautiful and strong with 27-points of support.

Photo of the moon through the telescope using a cellphone:

Custom Focuser:

Rocker Box:

The following photos are from Monday, February 23rd 2026. The temperature was below freezing….not too bad, but with a @ 15-20 mph NW wind!

Don Brooks and Billy Fisher setting up the telescope. It became too cold for me, and had to leave shortly after sunset.

In about 1991, I began looking for something larger than my 4.5-inch reflector which I was using at that time. The Meade Deep-Space series Newtonian’s consisted of two telescopes: A 10-inch and 16-inch f/4.5 with equatorial mounts.

This was at a time when Meade was building their serious Newtonian’s in their Costa Mesa, facility, which included grinding and polishing mirrors.  All of the hardware, bolts and Allen heads on these telescopes and mounts are SAE, not metric, which goes back to days past.

Astronomy Magazine tested a 10-inch DS-10A (The 10A was an updated version with a 2-inch focuser, setting circles, and RA drive) with the magazine giving the test mirror a rating of a B+.  

So, in February 1992, I purchased the 10-inch from Pauli’s Wholesale Optics, in Danbury Connecticut. It was Fred (the owner of Pauli’s) that recommended this telescope. It was a good decision as I have been successful in making more than 1,500 deep-sky pencil sketches and thousands of observing notes.

The low pedestal mount is ideal for use with an astro-chair, when making observing notes and pencil sketches at the eyepiece. As for me, it’s impossible to observe and sketch while standing.

The new owner of this fabulous telescope which served me well for 34 years. I spent over 2,000 hours under a night sky and thousands of pencil sketches of deep-sky objects, and the scope is still in pristine condition. The telescope was always stored inside and in a padded zip-up bag.

It was a sad day, but a happy day as the “perfect amateur” came to take this scope. I’m sure it will allow him at least 34 years of deep-sky observing also.

The first night out (Friday February 13th 2026) the new owner has already imaged the Orion Nebula, Jupiter and other deep-sky objects. This is actually an imaging telescope, with the mirror moved up for full illumination, and with an RA drive, which I never used. An extender tube is required for visual observing.

The new owner is a professional high-speed video camera expert for industrial applications and also an experienced amateur astronomer.

Yes….the very first images and on the very first night out! I’d say pretty impressive!

Orion Nebula:

Jupiter

M42 (with night vision) I’d like to encourage more people to get into Night Vision Astro.

Galaxy M82

Double Cluster

M1 the Crab Nebula