Hi everyone,
I guess my fascination with space started reasonably early, i think i was about 8 years old with a pair of borrowed binoculars in the back yard looking up at Jupiter in a twilight sky and seeing the faint glint of something that was not a twinkling star.
Always interested in science and space since. now some 20 something years later, i came across a telescope in big w, Vixen 76/700 marked down to $50 with tripod, I could not refuse ! with a 4mm sr and a 20mm h eyepiece and a 1.5x erector and 3x barlow, all of which were .96".
Over the next 6 months or so I got some nice views of Jupiter's Bands and 4 Moons, the Moon, Saturn, even a peek at the great nebula in Orion. a wander through the Centaurus Constellation, and a Phase of Venus a few times.
Did a little research about eyepieces and magnification and found a National Geographic 76/350 table top dobsonion in Aldi for $75 with 1.25" eyepieces (again 4mm sr, 20mm h, 2 x barlow) no finder on this one so was a bit awkward to use.
So i went back to the vixen, had the focuser machined to take 1.25" eyepieces and used the better 1.25" eyepieces in that.
Bought a 15mm Celestion eyepiece, AMAZING upgrade from the "toy" eyepieces.
Bought a 6mm Super Plossl from Australian Geographic.
Worked well until i found another National Geographic scope at Aldi for $120 this one is another 76/700 but on a much sturdier mount this one equatorial mounted with a dovetail and counterbalanced.
I figured the mount alone was worth about $60 and the Eyepieces were 12.5mm and 25mm ( much more reasonable for the scope ) along with a smartphone adapter ( worth around $10 - $20 ) i figured the eyepieces were worth about $15 each, so the scope was at worst $30 !
Gave the 76/350 and a few accessories away to a friends son for his 10th birthday, the Vixen is going to another friends son soon. Hopefully i have sparked the same questioning, and desire for exploration in them that was given to me all those years ago ....
recently we got new neighbors and i spotted a 60mm bushnell refractor on their porch, inquired as to it's use and was told it was an "ornament" they has a 6" Mak-Cas GoTo ! Best friends since! but they have pointed me here so here i am !
so Hi All
