[PeterM]

Interesting question.
Having bought a Lunt 60mm and Coronado 40mm for Solar in the last few weeks, I have found the lack of Sunspots for 21 straight days along with smoke haze over the Gold Coast basically leave me with a focussed red ball. Have also bought and sold a number of items from IIS recently and the recent IIS sales archives show a fair bit of equipment has changed hands. Also spoken to a few Astro retailers in Qld & NSW recently and they were glowing about sales. Maybe After Pay, Black Fridays, Low interest rates and Discounts are too much to resist and save the day. But in my case at least last month and this month I've been rethinking the 3 hour drive to our Leyburn dark sky site. Looking at the smoke map I don't know how anyone from Bega to Brisbane and outwest could be doing much Astro at all.

But first an foremost our thoughts should be with those affected and those fighting these awful fires. My thoughts are with my mate Jim at Millmerran, you and your family stay safe. Testing times.