The SEDS-Scope is a project combining the multiple talents of SEDS members to create an 18 inch Dobsonian telescope. When completed, this telescope will provide us with a large aperture, mobile telescope to take to Star Parties, and local Space events to help educate the public about space.


Our beautiful 18" mirror was custom crafted for us by the Steward Observatory Mirror lab, and is unique in that it possesses the same cooling cell pattern on the back as the LBT telescope. This is the first time such a cell pattern has been attempted on an 18" mirror, and we are all fascinated to test it out.

In 2004 SpaceShipOne was the first privately funded piloted aircraft to prove it could consistently reach the threshold of space, thus winning the Ansari X-Prize. Since then, the X-Prize foundation has held the X-Prize Cup at the Las Cruces, New Mexico space port to further promote space exploration. We were there to witness SpaceShipOne's first successful sub-orbital flight and again the following year at the inaugural Countdown to the X-Prize Cup. We attended the X-Prize Cup last year as a club during October 20 and 21 and we plan on attending this year on October 27 and 28. For more information about the X-Prize Cup, please visit: http://www.xprizecup.com/

SpaceVision is the national SEDS conference. This year it is being hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chapter on their campus in Boston during November 9-12. SpaceVision welcomes both SEDS and non-SEDS members. For more information please visit: http://www.spacevision.seds.org/

Last year we went on a day long trip to the Large Binocular Telescope and got a private tour of the amazing observatory. The mirrors of the LBT have the same honeycomb mirror design as the primary mirror on the 18” telescope we are building.