My favorite, an 8" Dobsonian mount and tube, made entirely out of wood. The outer layer of that tube was made from a single sheet of Mahogany veneer. 

This is a really big telescope. That is a ten foot tall ladder next to it...used by the operator when he wants to climb up and look through the eyepiece. 

This is a 20" diameter, Discovery brand telescope, featuring a Dobsonian mount with struts instead of a tube, and a cloth light baffle. The telescope was also equipped with a micro-electronic "object sensor" to detect when it was pointing at the object the operator requested. 

Here's the back end of the 20" Discovery. You can see the giant chunk of glass. 

The field of telescopes, wearing UV-protective rain coats. Don't they look like a bunch of aliens? 

The "Couch Potato" viewing platform: a chair on a rotating platform, complete with an adjustable-height binocular stand. 

Scarlet Gilia, a delicate flower in a harsh climate, found at 6000 feet elevation. 

Mt Stewart was nearly at eye-level, as was Mt Rainier and Mt Adams, from the top of Table Mountain. 

Probably Monochamus Scutellatus, from the Coleoptra Cerambycidae, or "White Spotted Sawyer Beetle" this giant black flying creature was named "Akiller the Hun" by Ramiro. 

Monya 

Close-up of the knitted roses. Abby wanted me to make something for her. She loves flowers and picked out the bright red yarn from my inventory and told me to make something with it. She wanted a ring, bracelet or necklace. I needed to experiment with flowers, so she was happy to have these. She treated the leaf like a stem, and carried the roses around the house for several hours. See Lief's blog for an example of how she holds flowers. 

Denim blue cotton and acrylic with 15% wool sweater that Lief and I designed. The "racing stripe" cable and seed stitch goes up the right front and down the right back. The knitted roses are an experiment that just happens to be laying on the sweater. 

32" X 32" lavender blanket for Amelia. The yarn is a very soft polyester-nylon blend. I started it the day she was born (April 11) and finished it on May 20. 

1/2000sec f4.5 34mm ISO100 MF 4/30/06 6:26PM PDT. The bright portion near the bottom had filled the entire object. It looks like a cloud was blowing off to the left of the rainbow. 

What is that thing in the sky? 

Ferns and moss on Alder trees near Amboy 

Abby, just before she said, "Mama, Amelia is heavy!" 

Both grandma's girls 

That's me holding Amelia 

Lief looks just like he did three years ago, when Abby was born.