AoA Saqib,

 

       All the optics were imported. A friend of mine in US saw my enthusiasm in astronomy and sent me the primary mirror (6"), three eye pieces and rack-n-pinion focuser. I would say I was lucky, had it not been for him, perhaps I would never have been able to grind and produce a mirror of my own. Although, amateurs do grind mirrors, but its sorta too tricky and technical. Once you get the optics, you can download the manual on how to do the carpentry stuff to assemble the optical tube assembly and alt-az base. However, I did lots of innovations of my own, where I deviated from the manual, like, it was hard for me to find a "Sonotube" or Cardboard tube here, so I used 8" dia PVC pipe, used a circular tailgate instead of a rectangular one, developed a single-vane spider (with help from an ATM site) instead of a standard 3-vane one... So it was fun and I enjoyed it..

     I used my telescope quite actively for many months to follow, it was excellent on Planets and moon. I viewed Saturn (Cassini Division, Titan), Jupiter (GRS and moon transits), Venus, Mars (quite faint at that time). Then few DSOs like M31, M13, M42, ring nebula, many double stars etc. I had a "star party" of a sort on 8th June, 2004 when I let my friends and neighbours view the "Venus Transit". But now it has been quite a while since I last touched it. Unfortunately and sadly, perhaps, I find myself too much occupied with other matters, or have lost the level of interest. Anyway I have got to revive the same spirit... Has any other member facing same problem as mine???

 

Good Luck

 

Adnan