[pmrid (Peter)]

The down side of aperture fever is that inevitably you find yourself with an embarassment of darned scopes. Add to that a DIY fetish and you have a real problem. I have officially exceeded my quota of storage spaces in our house and although she would not use the word ultimatum, my dearly beloved has other ways of letting me know thatvI have transgressed.

So, I will begin with the couple of scopes that have bettered me most. I don't want to sell them. I am willing to give them away - preferably to someone who does street astro or other outreach things.

There is an old black tube Celestron C11 for starters - I never really got a collimationn I was happy with but that could well be my failure not the scope. Anyway, I have fitted one of those corrector plate dew heater rings that works fine. I have also fitted a bracket that accepts an ASI EAF. It comes with an original case but don't ask about shipping. It's a pickup job.

The second scope is a GSO 8 inch newtonian F5. I have had the primary resurfaced. But once again I have struggled with collimation. There is no guide scope with it but it does have rings. It us also a pickup job.

I also have a couple of DIY achromats - a 5 inch and an 80mm. They too can go. They are not pretty and their value is probably in the glass and not much more.

Now before you folks in Wagga Wagga get too excited, pickup is on Bribie Island in SE Qld.

I was going to give them both to a local OP shop but would prefer them to go to someone who wants to put them to some use. If, say, after a fortnight nobody volunteers to put me out of range of my wife's revenge, that' where they will go.

PM me if you have any ideas.