Lizard on mirror

Amateur astronomy presents numerous surprises. In this case, a friend of mine was having trouble collimating his newtonian reflector. Astute problem solving quickly determined the cause:

This photo shows the view down the aperature of a rather high-end telescope he uses for imaging. The sacrosanct mirror is at the bottom of the tube, and the blurry foreground shows the telescope tube and secondary mirror.

The lizard appears to be a species we refer to as alligator lizard, for the pattern of the scales resembles an alligator's scales.

jg