Man swaps his car for telescope!!!

[DobDobDob]

Okay, I know what you're all thinking, this has got to be a gag, but I can assure you that there is a happy forum member who is now the proud owner of a fully working car which he received for swapping one of his telescopes which he wasn't using very much.

I don't know if this is a world first or not, but three cheers for the power of IIS, which made these unique possibilities come to pass. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[ving]

soooo? what did ya get? :)

has to be one of teh strangest things i have heard... al tho i'd swap my daughter for a 30" dob ;)

[GeoffW1]

He will now be able to see where he is going to a much greater resolution, but still without risk of arriving there :rofl: :rofl:

GeoffW1

[leon]

Ah we need these sort of things happening from time to time, it makes IIS so interesting, where anything is possible. :lol: :lol:

Cheers Leon :thumbsup:

[DobDobDob]

All I can say is I am very happy with the trade and of course I am now waiting for the first clear night to come along so I can actually use the telescope. The weather is not looking too good for tonight.

[DobDobDob]

By way of additional information, I had this on the Trade thread but want to close that. So remembering that we both got what we wanted, we were never really interested in converting down to a dollar value, in this case it was a pure barter in it's simplest form.

The telescope is a Synta (Chinese Factory made) 6 inch (150mm aperture with 1200mm focal length) Sky-Watcher plus a 6x50 finder, and a 40mm Plossil eyepiece on a EQ5 mount with clock drives in both axis, on a sturdy aluminium tripod.

I am a beginner, so this is meant to be a starter scope, so at this stage a 6 inch refractor is well and truly big enough for me to start with.

[okiscopey]

You've answered my question from the other thread!

Well done, great swap! :thumbsup:

6-inch! When I started getting interested in astronomy, 2 or 3-inch were considered 'starter' scopes.

[DobDobDob]

So okiscopey how about coming around and showing me how to use it :P , how to coliminate it, drive it and make it do it's tricks like move to the left, move to the right, up down and around :whistle:

[DobDobDob]

Sounds like an episode of Ripley's believe it or not ;)

[okiscopey]

I would, bu-uu-uut, big problem ... couldn't set up an EQ5 to save my life!

Can you believe that from 1953 to September 2006 (when I got the ETX) it was an all-absorbing theoretical interest with no hands-on except for eyes/binos.

Yes, it's truly a weird and wonderful world we live in!

P.S. Did swap a bicycle for binoculars once, but you hold the record! :lol:

[DobDobDob]

LOL and don't forget it....I wonder what I can trade for the house....hmnnn :whistle:

[DobDobDob]

Hang on, I just did the math, if you were observing, in any form, in 1953, it would make you one of the oldest members of IIS by a long shot :eyepop:

[Miaplacidus]

Congratulations, Ron. Anything that foils the ATO...

Shame on you, Ving. Anyone who'll take my son is welcome to all my astronomy gear too.

Cheers,

Brian.

[DobDobDob]

I hadn't thought about 'The department that shall not be named', but now that you mention it, I guess if the whole world suddenly started bartering again, the world would be thrown into chaos, banks would go bankrupt (now there's a novel thought) :P

No I did the trade out of pure convenience, it was just a suitable thing for both parties, anyway there is still a bit of stamp duty in the paperwork that gets transferred, so 'The department that shall not be named' didn't completely miss out :sadeyes:

[xelasnave]

Congratulations Ron:thumbsup: . I recon they are a great set up:thumbsup: :thumbsup: ( I have a celestron 150 ar version and they are great when you consider a triplet of the same app. costs $15,000 approx..) I have used mine for photos and its not too bad when on the eq6..May I suggest that you add about 7 to 11 klgs weight to the tray to make the tripod real solid it helps a great deal ,easier to focus on planets for example, views become steady faster..and make sure the bolts where the tripod join the top of it are tight and "bite" so the tripod does not move.I found this area lacking in mine so I make the suggestion as you may find similar. I will be in Sydney next week so call me, er pm if you need a number, if you need any help:) ..I plan on setting my 150ar up in Sydney for the Moon and planets given the sky glow I will leave deep sky for up home.
alex:) :) :)

[DobDobDob]

Great, thnx Alex :thumbsup: I will take all your suggestions on board, with gratitude. I have so very much to learn, and don't mind admitting it :P

When you visit Sydney (which is very very big from edge to edge), what area do you generally go to? I am in the Western suburbs, in Prospect which is next door to the more widely known Blacktown.

[DobDobDob]

I am probably jumping the gun a bit because I haven't even use the telescope once yet due to rain........but........when it comes to eyepieces and filters, what are the general suggestions, at this stage I only have the one Possil 40mm but I hear and read so much about different eyepieces, can anyone give me the heads up on what I should get for this particular telescope?

[okiscopey]

I hope not!

Perhaps I stretched the truth just a tad. A family friend pointed out 'Mars' in the night sky when I was six. This caught my interest but can't recall what I did for the next couple of years. I do know that I was well into the reading by eight or nine and had pulled apart an an old marine-type 'draw-tube' telescope to see how it worked. I can still smell and taste the brass! Read all about telescope making, joined the BAA, drooled over Questar ads in the 60's ... but for some unaccountable reason, never did end up with a proper telescope until recently.

That's my tale. Hopefully the spotlight can now fall on some other poor unfortunate 59+ IIS-er!

Could be an interesting new thread ... how young were you ... earliest memories ...? etc.

[DobDobDob]

That's an interesting thought, I wonder what the actual statistics are, perhaps Mike can do a quick survey, the youngest, oldest and mean average age. Now that there is over 2k members, he should be able to do the math, it might make interesting reading.

Without thinking about it too much, I would predict that the average age would fall between the range of 40 to 55 years, yes I know that is a wide range, but it is bias towards the older age group.

[ballaratdragons]

That's why the Government hates BarterCard so much, and the online Barter clubs and sites. The 'Barter' market is actually much bigger than people think :thumbsup:

There are organisations where you can barter points to barter something else. You get your item and the other person gains barter points to barter with on any other item in the barter register. You don't have to swap with the person you got an item off. Good fun.

[Ric]

Great stuff Ron, it sounds like you a great scope there, a 6" will be no slouch when it comes to viewing.
I wonder if cloud build up is associated with trades as well :lol: .

Look forward to reading your observing report

[DobDobDob]

If in the last 2 months since I joined IIS, the bad weather is directly attributable to me (as I suspect), I sincerely and respectfully apologize to all amateur astronomers, everywhere :shrug:

Regarding the observing notes, I am really keen to make direct comparisons on Saturn and Jupiter with respect to binoculars versus telescope, I have a real good appreciation of how those two planets look via binoculars, so I am just busting to see them in the 6 inch scope. ;)

[DobDobDob]

So lets develop IIS barter points, there are enough members and the Buy/Sell/Trade section of the forum is amongst the most active, there is a thriving and flourishing opportunity to do business between ourselves. Like you said, the important thing is to have a core value system (points) where unlike objects can be directly compared. This would be not so different than PayPal is you think sideways a little. :thumbsup:

[ving]

I take it you have a teenager too huh? ;)