Hi guys
Thanks for the welcome and the interest in my less than leading edge scope. It is intimidating seeing your equipment lists but....... I do have aspirations. At this stage I think an achievable aim is for a 8" Dob with motorised tracking so I can use a webcam to get some reasonable photos. Does this seem like a practical possibilty?
I live in Donacaster, Vic. and already have a scarey list of "must haves" and to be honest, I'm not convinced that joining IIS is going to help at all. I see lots of articles on the internet inducing me to buy things but very few tutorials on balancing astronomy, finances and family life. Oh well. I must say that already, it looks like the weather helps. Maybe that is the real reason for rain and clouds. In fact I've suddenly decided that I'll have to publish my theory on the how the reason for poor weather is simply to try (it doesn't always work) to curb men's lack of willpower.
On the subject of "must haves" I can offer some helpful advice already. My wife didn't want to but is quite impressed with my new 20 mW green laser pointer (for which I'm making a mount for at the moment). It does help if your friends and (especially) loved ones can see where you (and they) are looking. On top of that, everyone thinks it is way cool. The only trouble is that I've just discovered that I "must have" a Telrad. Doh!
Even if I can't get any help with my collimation, I'll experiment and perhaps I'll become the Subject Matter Expert at IIS on collimating internally barlowed scopes.
Got to go as I need to look for or start a post on how I might make my flimsy tripod legs more rigid.
Thanks again.
Steve
BTW the **** in my name is due to internet censorship which has caused problems before. Sorry, but it's not my fault.