How did you buy that scope/accessory?

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Hi all,

I am trying not to be too nosey here but as a matter of interest, what are some of the ways you have bought your equipment? Was it saving, getting a loan, selling the wife and kids?

If you don't want to post on here you can PM me, or if you don't want to post, don't...

I will be first, I saved up all the lose change I had, kept it under lock and key and didn't touch it. I just kept adding all the change or spare cash that was lying around. I was able to buy the Telrad and Dew shield and still have enough left over to keep saving for something special. Very hard to save on one wage and two kids

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Very similar...I save up the loose change around the house and then my Finance Minister (wife) allows me to have a small percentage of any annual bonus that I earn from work...

[acropolite (Phil)]

Luckily I could just take the money out of the bank, of course subject to Ministerial approval. I will have to slip some funds aside for the accessories as the minister does not understand the need for add ons.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

I have no dependants, no finance minister and a paid off mortgage.
What I havent seen advertised anywhere are the 'dark sky', 'good seeing' and cloud zapper accessories.

If I could purchase those I would be tempted to spend a bit more on equipment.

[Striker (Tony)]

The best way to get around funding your telescope accessories is not to tell the misses in the first place......or just give her false information.

If I told my wife this 31mm Nagler cost $1000 she wouldn't believe me and then just laugh at me....so I tell it cost $125...end of story......

[robin]

For nearly 25 years I've been a semi-professional musician.The extra income acquired financed my expensive habit.Er....thats astronomy we're talking about. I must confess to doing a 'striker' on some occasions where I tell my treasured other half that my 35mm Panoptic was $200 & not the full retail amount.......saves me sleeping out in the dog kennel

[rowena]

hahaha well im a "DINK". The other half spends his money on his toys, so being allowed to purchase a new scope or camera or accessories is not too hard to convince Basically we just save our own money and spend it on our own toys. works for us.

as for how i found a scope.. well i purchased my celestron 5" through the Trading post around 2 to 2.5 years ago. I was able to get it for less then half price of what they cost new at the time. trading post is available online.

Other sites I have looked at are geckooptical.com, ebay, and of course Ice-in-space

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

well having a milestone birthday-say the big five oh-helps justify all sort of capital outlays to the Finance Ministry

can even get treasury to kick in

[iceman (Mike)]

Pleading, begging, promises of big gifts in return.

[rmcpb (Rob)]

Saving my pocket money helps - good example to the boys. Wouldn't dare use any of the Minister's funds

[ving (David)]

I just mercilessly atack my poor bank account... god I feel sorry for it sometimes
mission control doesnt fund my bad habits but she does get a bit upset if i spend too much. I think she too feels the pain in my back pocket.

[h0ughy (David)]

I was lucky with my scope, I won it in 1999 by winning the AStronomy Magazine millenium trip prize to see in the new millenium in 2000 in new zealand. BUt the US travel company went belly up and the trip was canned. So I asked gordon and Gotch If I can have a telescope up to the value of the prize. They agreed and in my case it was to the value of $10000. So I got a 12" LX200, plus as many accessories as I could muster. Since then i have added another $6000 on equipment. All of that raised by building PC systems and servicing PC's for people.

The kicker was you had to write in 25 words or less why you deserved the trip - I wrote that my wife hates astronomy as much as I love it, and that it may break the ice and warm her around to tolerating it. So its trip 0 and very large modern scope for me 1, marriage 0.

ANd yes I have used the one line Oh but I go it cheap, it only cost me "same as striker"! i don't think she believes me??

Houghy