Last night I attended my first full-moon star party on the front driveway of John Pons' home in North Hollywood, California. John provided the telescopes, his wife the refreshments. The guest list was impressive: Caveman and wife Debbie, Dan Mounsey of Woodland Hills Camera, my wife Carla and myself, a number of refractor friends of John and Dan, and some of his neighbors.

The real celebrities of the evening were Pons' 6-inch Goto prototype refractor, built in 1954, and his larger custom-made refractor, based on Zeiss designs, that was made to hold a number of different objective lenses (more on this later).

But first, the little star of the show was Caveman's circa 1953 Nippon Kogaku 50mm refractor on its original mount. Its performance amazed everybody! It provided color-free, ultra-sharp views of Venus. It also provided comparatively better views of Jupiter than its larger brethren because it was less sensitive to seeing conditions. The "Little Scope that Could" is a definite keeper - I wish it were mine.

Here's a picture of the "Little Scope that Could" and its owner, Caveman (aka Clint Whitman), looking thru one of the two original tack-sharp eyepieces.