A similar collective obsessive disorder exists with musicians GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) and Like BCAS (Black Camera Acquisition Syndrome) there's always room for one more
I have 3 scopes and 2 binos, I promised my wife I would sell 2 scopes and a binos in order to purchase my latest and most expensive scope.
Now I've had a change of heart and only want to sell 1 scope. I think 2 is fair, 1 for imaging and one for visual. And I need 2 binos...one large for astro, and one 7x40 for travelling (its portable and the image is AMAZING, so it always gets good use travelling)
I'm going to try and negotiate to see a mountain bike instead. Wish me luck
Three scopes, four binoculars.
C8, a late 90’s Starbright with Fastar secondary.
A “York” (made in Kung Ming) 80ED, not bad, but a little colour.
And a SkyWatcher 130 Dob, my balcony scope.
7x50 Fujinon.
8x42 Minox.
9x62 Celestron Ultima, the non-waterproof version made by Vixen.
20x77 Miyauchi, 45° viewing angle, slightly out of collimation, but I love this thing.
FSQ106N for widefield, 8" newt for closer views, C11 + hyperstar for faint stuff, or just visual and mewlon 210 for long FL on the field. Heaps of various pentax prime lenses for widefields too. I use them all because each does a different and specific job very well. The scope you don't use is the one too many IMHO.
The problem I had occasionally with 4 or 5 scopes for imaging was that I sometimes had to relearn which adapters went with each as often they were subtley different.
How many are too many? When you run out of room to store them. Then you have too many. But I would say 2-4 is optimum unless you are just a collector.
The number of my scopes keeps changing.
2 years in the hobby and 18 months with at least one active telescope. I have an old Sears refractor that I don't use so I don't count that one.
Bought Meade ETX 80
Was given a Tasco 76 mm Newtonian
Bought an Orion XT8i Intelliscope
Gave the Tasco to a friend
Added broken ETX 60
Added used ETX 125
ETX 60 fixed and will be given to a friend so I am not counting that one.
So now it is ETX 80, ETX 125, Orion XT8i They are all computer assisted but I have used them all manually, with the computer turned off. I run them manually about 50% of the time, when I am visiting familiar sights.
Based on the survey, 2-4 seems to be the most common situation. Three for the moment. I also have 4 sets of binoculars, two I actively use and two for hand-out at outreach events. I think that is enough as each one fits a different place in the toolbox so to speak.
Meade ETX 80 - 80 mm Goto refractor - Wide view, small and light GoTo - Great for vacation travel. I can put the scope and goto mount in a Gym back for travel on vacation. Or I have a backpack for it. I can leave the tripod at home and use it as a GoTo tabletop.
Meade ETX 125 EC - 125mm Mak GoTo - Just got it used. Long FL. Should be excellent for planets and double stars. Fairly small so easy to put it in the car and go somewhere. This can also be used as a GoTo tabletop.
Orion XT8i - 8" computer assisted Dob. This is my main scope, probably 70% of total telescope eyepiece time. XT8i is a good all around and easy to put in the car for local trips to the darker sites, but too big to take on vacation trips. Not enough room in the car for all the other stuff we take when we go on vacation.
They all stand fully assembled and ready to go in my garage so I can have any of them set up and observing in minutes. If I were to buy something else it would likely be an Orion XX14I Intelliscope or XX16G GoTo truss dob and sell the XT8i.
3 for me
GSO RC8 CF for imaging
Orion ST 80 for guiding
and last but not least my Tasco 114 which is taken with us when we go camping for some visual at darker sites than at home.
Also thinking of replacing the ST80 with a nice triplet to double up for widefield imaging and guiding.
Its simple. You see a scope and it obviously needs a good home. There are mad cat women, people who collect spoons, hoarders of all types. Telescopes are a thing of beauty, timeless in a lot of respects, don't offend people (unless pointed into neighbours bathrooms) and represent a challenge to their owners to perfect and maximise their performance. Mine would not be regarded by many as good scopes, but they've all been stripped and rebuilt (I'm inquisitive by nature) and have their own individual look (the old flames around the aperture trick) My favourite is a 12" dob, 28mm UWAN, laser finder, finderscope, and a piggybacked Mak90. The mak doubles as an illuminated reticle finder on those really dark nights, and is mounted low enough on the tube to both balance out the UWAN, and its other duty is providing my grandson with an ideal viewing height so he can also see what I'm gazing at without being boosted up. It's all a hodgepodge of homemade and modified proprietary gear, its as ugly as sin, but we love it. (Next week it'll have a digital inclinometer and a digital compass, so it will be "pimped"! There was a time when the house was being over-run, now theres a dedicated thermostat/fan cooled and dehumidified shed . Its full. But that DOES NOT mean I've got too many!
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