Patrick and others, In light of Patrick's generous offer with the Brandt refractor, I got to thinking about SPOC and the 14-inch scope for sale that is sitting in Charlie Green's backyard. Why not salvage the optics and drive from that scope instead of selling it? The mount is HIGHLY impractical to keep as is in my opinion for several reasons, but I suspect the drive motor and components could be usefully applied to a better design. Take all that metal and have some bright people like Bruce design and create something to permanently mount the Brandt on, and take the 14-inch optics and make a nice portable truss dob out of it that could be stored at SPOC and wheeled outside (with detachable wheelbarrow handles like I use on my 16-inch TeleKit) whenever there was a star party? Seems like a better idea than selling it off for less than it's worth and likely having much of it wind up in the scrap yard anyway... As to buildings, I've noticed that BYU has a large observatory dome sitting out in their back lot for the past couple of years. Does anyone know if they have sold it, or are interested in selling it? Maybe we could get them to donate it...? I don't know, what do y'all think? Let's at least kick some ideas around... -Rich __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com