Finally - great to have it home :)

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Last weekend after my first astronomical session in years, under the guidance of Zane at Magellan Observatory (Lake Bathurst, NSW), I've found a new energy in the hobby. I've always loved the stars, and in particular the solar system and our moon, but have never been under CONTROL of my own observations. I've always had to just look-on as others went through the motions, hoping that they may show me something great as they flew on past... Well - all that changed today

Jenny and I raced down to Magellan last night (Friday) and picked up our new baby - Zane's ex 12" SCT. After another familiarisation session last night, Zane kindly gave it the once over to make sure it would travel well. We packed it in its bag and it fit into our Land Rover's back seat - perfectly..... just!

I have to say that Zane is a fantastic bloke. He is very knowledgeable and extremely helpful. He tossed in a few nice options like a t-piece and small digital camera mount. He also gave me a copy of a Moon book we were discussing last time I was down - a pictorial odyssey of the moon. For this I thank him with all I've got - a very generous gift and well appreciated.

Got it home and firstly cut and shortened the tripod's tension spars as Zane had modified the height some time ago. Being mounted on a purpose-built plinth the legs we didn't realise that the spars were too long with the shorter legs going back to a normal free-standing mode.

Got her home, hooked her up, GPS locked - even through our roof (which I found odd - I wonder if it really did or not??)_ and I practised with the Autostar menus again.

CAN'T WAIT to take it outside tonight, but just saw the weather report on the news stating rain until Thursday..... Oh well... it's been years in the making anyway!

I know you've seen them all before, but here' my little baby anyhow!

[RB (Andrew)]

Congratulations on your new scope, she's a beauty.
Hope you have many many ejoyable nights under the stars.
Looking forward to your reports and images.

Clear skies

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Yep, congratulations. You can leave it there till the weather breaks, just put a coffee cup holder on the tripod

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Congrats Omaroo. I'm sure you're going to be very happy

I'd say you would be pretty right with the GPS as my 8" had no problems picking them up and it was downstairs.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Congratulations on the new arrival. If the weather's bad at least you can press a few buttons and watch it do the chicken dance.

[h0ughy (David)]

well done, you will love that scope, heaps of things to find and observe!

[astronut (John)]

Good to see you all arrived home safely Chris You realise that you will have to bring it along to the next observing night so it can meet all the other telescopes!!!!

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by astronut

Good to see you all arrived home safely Chris You realise that you will have to bring it along to the next observing night so it can meet all the other telescopes!!!!

Thanks John You guys bring 12" scopes along to your obvserving nights? Well.... OK!! We'in!


Chris