NTD X3

[MartyG]

A local guy was selling all his telescope gear as he is moving to a senior center. At first I was only interested in the Edmunds Astroscan (funky but cool 70s classic) but ended up with all three of his scopes for less than $300 - one is an Orion SkyQuest X010 Dobsonian and the other a Meade 90mm Maksotov Reflector. Lots of extra lenses, finders and gadgets and all like new. Feels kind of like Christmas morning. Now I gotta learn how to use 'em! Could have used the Meade for the eclipse I suppose - maybe next time - at least I have time to learn how to set it up!

 

[GAD]

Nice! I love those Edmund Scientific scopes. My dad was fascinated by them and I think they're such a cool concept.

That little Meade is no slouch, either! Nice score!

Not a huge Dob fan because I easily get frustrated without tracking.

 

[GAD]

BTW happy to help with any questions if I can!

 

[GardMan]

Looks like fun! At one point, I had a Celestron C90 (90 mm Maksotov-cassegrain), Celestron C5 (5" Schmidt Cassegrain) and Meade 2020 (10" Schmidt Cassegrain). A lot of late night summer evenings, and COLD winter evenings here in SLC. Once the kids came along, I found I wasn't a good parent the day after telescoping all night... and I don't do well after 10 PM anymore. So, I sold all my scopes and used the proceeds to buy Guild dreads...

 

[Cougar]

A local guy was selling all his telescope gear as he is moving to a senior center. At first I was only interested in the Edmunds Astroscan (funky but cool 70s classic) but ended up with all three of his scopes for less than $300....

Holy smokes! That sounds like quite a deal! Major congrats!

 

[Cougar]

... and I don't do well after 10 PM anymore.

You make it to 10?

 

[GAD]

Looks like fun! At one point, I had a Celestron C90 (90 mm Maksotov-cassegrain), Celestron C5 (5" Schmidt Cassegrain) and Meade 2020 (10" Schmidt Cassegrain). A lot of late night summer evenings, and COLD winter evenings here in SLC. Once the kids came along, I found I wasn't a good parent the day after telescoping all night... and I don't do well after 10 PM anymore. So, I sold all my scopes and used the proceeds to buy Guild dreads...

Oh nice! I used to have an 8” Celestron Ultima and sold it for similar reasons. Hauling that thing around to dark sky locations just didn’t happen with kids needing sleep and attention.

Here it is at the 1994 Annular eclipse in NH:



Camera was a Pentax K1000 and I manually fired every exposure changing out film rolls as required.



I find myself thinking about a 9.25” Edge HD these days because loaded up it’s just under the weight limit of my current mount. Meanwhile my back still hurts from Lake Placid so I clearly haven’t learned a thing.

 

[Opsimath]

Oh nice! I used to have an 8” Celestron Ultima and sold it for similar reasons. Hauling that thing around to dark sky locations just didn’t happen with kids needing sleep and attention.

Here it is at the 1994 Annular eclipse in NH:



Camera was a Pentax K1000 and I manually fired every exposure changing out film rolls as required.



I find myself thinking about a 9.25” Edge HD these days because loaded up it’s just under the weight limit of my current mount. Meanwhile my back still hurts from Lake Placid so I clearly haven’t learned a thing.

What? We're supposed to learn from our errors in judgement? (I for one generally don't.)

I hope your back feels better quickly, and we certainly appreciate your willingness to risk backache in order to get those fabulous shots and share them with us. I think you've really created eclipse interest where before there may not have been much.

 

[GAD]

What? We're supposed to learn from our errors in judgement? (I for one generally don't.)

I hope your back feels better quickly, and we certainly appreciate your willingness to risk backache in order to get those fabulous shots and share them with us. I think you've really created eclipse interest where before there may not have been much.

Thanks!

The real lesson is that I have a wonderful 85mm (3.3”) refractor that I don’t use much so I’m not sure why I think I’d get more use out of a much larger and heavier scope. That’s a pretty common theme in my life, though.

I’ve also considered getting a hydrogen-alpha scope so I could take photos like these:



That way lies madness, though. Well, so does a big scope, but with a big scope I already have almost every eyepiece I could ever want. Astrophotography has evolved and for either rig I’d end up buying specialized cameras and it just never ends.

 

[GGJaguar]

I’ve also considered getting a hydrogen-alpha scope so I could take photos like these

Whatever happened to taking photos of guitars?

 

[Opsimath]

Thanks!

The real lesson is that I have a wonderful 85mm (3.3”) refractor that I don’t use much so I’m not sure why I think I’d get more use out of a much larger and heavier scope. That’s a pretty common theme in my life, though.

I’ve also considered getting a hydrogen-alpha scope so I could take photos like these:



That way lies madness, though. Well, so does a big scope, but with a big scope I already have almost every eyepiece I could ever want. Astrophotography has evolved and for either rig I’d end up buying specialized cameras and it just never ends.

That could make a challenging jigsaw puzzle.

 

[GAD]

Whatever happened to taking photos of guitars?

The hyperfocus is focused elsewhere.

I need to get back to that so I can get rid of some of them.