Well I don't have a wife to send back to work unfortunately Dave but that's a good idea for those who have one!
I technically have 5 pairs of bino's now - 2 pairs of the Andrew's 10x32 compacts (got a pair free with my GSO dob) 1 pair lives in the car, the other in my astronomy accessories box - I love to keep a pair of these at hand always. Then there's my new 20x80's that are at the complete opposite end of the scale in terms of both image and compactness / portability. They're SO definitely a keeper!
In between these extremes I have a pair of cheapo Tasco 7x50's that came free back in '99 with a Tasco wobbletonic scope that I had bought for someone as a present. These are not worth selling, especially now that they are no longer collimated, ie one barrel is bent slightly out of line so you get double images when viewing through them. I'll probably pinch the lenses out of them and make something for my son instead.
That leaves only my old favourite 8-24 x 50 Tasco World Class bino's, which are not great for astronomy but they are my favourites for sightseeing, bushwalking, etc. If I remember right they cost me over $300 back around 1990, I saved or ages to buy them. These are probably the only pair that I'd get anything for, but even so they probably aren't worth much.
Not enough to fund much more astro gear anyway.
Alex normally I do budget really well, and there is usually money out aside for everything, and I do mean everything. Since late last year however (in fact about a fortnight after I bought the 12" dob in October) a sudden and severe bout of unemployment hit the person I share my house with - thus I received no board for well over 3 months, in addition to which I was paying all of the electricity, phone and pay TV bills on my own.
On top of this my housemate had some kind of momentous mix-up with Centrelink and they did not grant any payment whatsoever during this entire period so I was also spotting the individual in question $50 here and there to buy food for themselves, as well as literally feeding them every time I made up a batch of anything. As a result I am out of pocket something like $1500 through no fault of my own but rather due to someone else's unemployment, so my bank account was flattened and my credit card reached a whole new level of being beyond maxed out.
Luckily the individual in question managed to find a new job last month so money is starting to dribble back into my coffers again, piece by piece. I've caught up (just this week) on bills and have a (small) surplus of cash in the bank again - just in time to buy new astro gear!!!
Maybe I'm better off just getting a second car - I can save twice as much money not paying my rego that way!
