The most surprising new toy...

[andyc]

So... having started a new job recently, I had decided to upgrade my telescope. I've owned an 8" Dob for 20 years, but for several reasons didn't bring it to the Southern Hemisphere when we came last year. Being a lover of everything deep sky, I thought of going with the 12" Lightbridge, for a combination of affordability and aperture. But of course, on having the chance to go to Bintel, it was out of stock...

I'll paraphrase the subsequent conversation I had with my wife (chief brain and breadwinner in our house):

OH: "What's the next one up?" [She asked, and didn't previously know anything about the Lightbridge scopes!]


Me: "The 16-inch, but that's too expensive, it's $2000"

OH: "Would you like it?" :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:

Me: "Well, ye-es, it would be a lifetime ambition to end up with a 16-inch scope." [Me being big into deep-sky astronomy]

OH: "So the 12-inch would be just a stepping-stone"

Me: "Yes and no, it would also be a fair bit more portable too."

OH: "Seems a waste to buy the 12-inch only to change it down the line for another scope. Why don't you just get the bigger one now? We have a garden that's suitable, and you'll get a lot of use out of it."

Me: :jawdrop::jawdrop::jawdrop:

Well, you can imagine how the day ended... :cool::D:D:D
And as for my wonderful other half, simply :bowdown:. But then I did marry a planetary scientist! And I'll be indebted to my other half a great deal for a fair while. I'm in awe of yesterday, and though last night was customarily cloudy, the forecast for tonight is clear. Apologies to the Melbourne crowd for last night's rain, and if clouds not present on the satellite materialise from somewhere this evening, you'll know why! :lol:

The telescope's collimated and ready to go for tonight, and I've bought a strap that I can loop round the altitude bearings and over my shoulders to make the OTA fully 1-person portable over short distances. Now to learn how to use 16" of light-gobbling joy...

[MrB]

Haha Awesome!

[sheeny]

:thumbsup:

:D

Al.

[Osirisra]

That is awesome alright, you got to be one megga happy chappy. Good choice on marrying a planetary scientist. :)

[Larryp]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::)

[PCH]

Fabulous story Andy, now just get that straight thru finderscope changed for a right angled one so you don't give yourself a hernia looking thru it, and you'll be away ! What a lovely missus you've got :thumbsup:

[DavidU]

:thumbsup:
Can your partner talk to my partner?:D

[Baddad]

Hey Andy,:)

I will pay you to introduce your partner to mine.:):):D

I will be for ever in your debt if my partner can be persuaded to do similar.:bowdown:

That is a great new toy. I think its a fair bet that the new toy implications of wet weather will be reaching Brisbane. Well it rained a few days ago. I assume that may have been the event?:)

Cheers

[allan gould]

Well done on all counts, enjoy the scope and don't forget hugs for the missus.

[kustard]

Gratz! :)

[blink138]

er....... who are you and what have you done with my real "bread knife!" ha ha!
pat

[andyc]

Thanks all for the nice comments! It was one of the most pleasantly surprising days of my life. Making my OH a pie, a cake and getting her some flowers on Sat was just the start of eating back into all those brownie points she earned!

First light was last night, traditionally on Alpha Centauri, collimation was pretty good, and the views were jaw-dropping, even through my collection of old and relatively cheap eyepieces. Will write up a fuller observation report at some point, but even in pretty mediocre transparency, there were dozens of objects visible in the SMC (using Paddy's charts (http://www.cloudsofmagellan.net.au/) for ID, his tour (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=97565) is next up for me), globulars sparkle, Neptune and Uranus were tiny crisp disks, and Triton was visible in the best conditions near the end of twilight. With the UHC filter, six nebulae were easy in the south part of the SMC. I never thought I'd be resolving lots of stars in NGC330, and basically didn't recognise it after views through my 4.5" and an 8". I thought the little cluster L56 was NGC330, then panned away from NGC346 ... and wondered what the big resolved cluster was that was appearing in the field! Not surprisingly, objects fairly whizz thorugh the field at high power (>~250x), but of course viewing the SMC you could take your time at high power, as the objects don't pass through the field so quickly, being near the Pole. High cloud spoilt the latter part of the evening, but was a good first night. Optics look to be excellent, and only a couple of small gripes with the scope (azimuth bearing too smooth, and the eyepiece slot can be a bit 'sticky' - inconvenient when the azimuth bearing is slippy as the scope can move on swapping eyepieces). 16" is fun...

[mental4astro]

I'm next in line!!!

I've got a 17.5" now. If you doubled your aperture, this should then line up a 35" for me!

Woohoo!

Let's exchange numbers and get the ball rolling, :D

[andyc]

Soo... Wee Beastie got a tiny bit of fame (!) - its first light on Apha Centauri was discussed by my wife when she was guesting on the "Science On Top" podcast entitled "Wobble (http://scienceontop.com/2012/10/sot-77-wobble/)" (~36minutes in). It was in the context of the news on Alpha Cen B - there's some interesting chat exoplanet hunting as well discussion of Felix Baumgartner and news from Curiosity. Helen's most interested in CheMin (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/instruments/spectrometers/chemin/), because of her powder diffraction expertise (the first off-Earth diffraction experiment is happening about now). More chat about MSL (from ~40min) and CheMin (44min). Helen mentioned the forum, but unfortunately not by name! I think the podcast was titled that because the presenters loved the way my OH says the word "wobble" (35min)!

marty and Alex, she's @DrHelenMC (https://twitter.com/Dr_HelenMC) on Twitter and writes "The shores of Titan (http://theconversation.edu.au/columns/helen-maynard-casely-4931)" blog on The Conversation...

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: woohooo way to go Andy nice toy you will have plenty years of fun with that beast :P and your wifey wow she is a keeper good on ya :thumbsup::thumbsup: just keep it in the back of your mind it will cost you later muahahahha :P

[Osirisra]

Really enjoyed the podcast, So lucky to have such a awesome wife!

[pmrid]

[QUOTE=andyc;904321]

OH: "What's the next one up?" [She asked, and didn't previously know anything about the Lightbridge scopes!]


Me: "The 16-inch, but that's too expensive, it's $2000"

OH: "Would you like it?" :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:

Me: "Well, ye-es, it would be a lifetime ambition to end up with a 16-inch scope." [Me being big into deep-sky astronomy]

OH: "So the 12-inch would be just a stepping-stone"

Me: "Yes and no, it would also be a fair bit more portable too."

OH: "Seems a waste to buy the 12-inch only to change it down the line for another scope. Why don't you just get the bigger one now? We have a garden that's suitable, and you'll get a lot of use out of it."

QUOTE]
As I read this, I was expecting it to end up saying something like " and then I woke up "

Well done. That's a BIG scope. You'll love it.

Peter

[andyc]

Peter, I need to look at the scope occasionally to ensure I haven't woken up yet! Views, even on the slightly ropey nights of the past week or so, have been astounding.

Ken, glad you liked the podcast! :thumbsup:

Jen, Helen will be dining out on this for quite some time to come...