Thank you IIS community

[OffGrid]

G'day All,
May I say thank you to the IIS community.

I have been a keen star gazer since childhood when my dad would point out the stars whilst us kids brushed our teeth in our outside laundry.
From humble beginnings with my Dads bino's and a long retired table Ascontron D50 F600 refractor, a 40 year plus bino only period has been dramatically broken by a prezzi from my better half for my 60th back in Sept.
I am now back in the fold with a Meade LX90 SCT goto.
I have named my scope Cloudmaker as I have found it a challenge to get cloudless nights, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays.

I have been watching this forum daily since Sept last and the value that I have received from forum posts is second to none.

Again, thank you to all who so willing share their love and experience of the heavens above.

Steve

[Allan]

Great story Steve, and that's a very nice telescope. Now to put it to use. I see you are on the Central Coast, so you should come along to our observing night on Saturday. You can look through some other telescopes and we can lend you a hand and maybe some of our eyepieces to try out if you are interested.

Have a look in the Star Parties section and read the thread Allan L started on Mangrove Mountain, and also the thread on directions to Mangrove Mountain Pony Club near the top of the page. Hope to see you there.

[Regulus]

Welcome to the asylum Steve.
That was a very clever choice of scope in the LX90 if your partner is inexperienced No wonder you call your partner the better half :lol:

Trev

[OffGrid]

Cheers Allan and Trevor,

Thank you for invite to the Pony Club this Saturday. If the weather is fine then I am keen to come up and mix with people that I can learn from.

There is a little story to the 8 inch LX90.
For as many years as I care to recall, I have dreamed of a big usable scope.
Whilst working in the Sydney, I was either near Astro Optic or Bintel or York, often dropping in at lunch to window shop, asking how much they cost and saying I will be back when the lottery passes my way.

In latter years the Meade LX200 at 10 or 12 inch was the dream and my wife Debbie knew this all along.

Unbeknown to me, when she decided to get a scope for me, she called Bintel and was given some very sound advice. That advice was in relation to the weight and size of the scopes with respect to my age today and in 5 to 10 years and also needing to transport to dark skies.
Whilst I may have looked a little disappointed when opening the prezzi, I have now great respect for my scope and that sound advice from Bintel. Of course my better half as usual has nailed it good.
There is simply no way I could have transported, assembled and enjoyed a simple star gazing with such big scopes.
Since getting the scope, I have been arranging suitable storage and transportation cases and now working on the power pack solution.
Next is to research video imaging and projection so I can share my scope with others.
My hope is to chase wide open dark skies as my back yard has very restricted sky view. That we will do with our caravan and what for a better reason to escape the light glow.

Steve.