I just bought an EQ8!

[codemonkey (Lee)]

omgomgomg. Went to check out the prices on Astropete's and found their site had been updated with an ex demo, never been turned on, for 3.8k. Hadn't planned on buying until tax return time, but with a price like that I just had to buy it! Actually away in Victoria at the moment, so I haven't physically got it yet, but I'll get it some time next week.

Anyone interested in buying a second-hand (or third-hand) EQ6? :-)

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

nice one Lee. Congratulations on the new purchase.... looks like cyclone season will come early to QLD this year

[h0ughy (David)]

well done

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

awesome work Lee, what are you going to throw on top??

[DarkArts]

Originally Posted by codemonkey

... Hadn't planned on buying until tax return time, but with a price like that I just had to buy it!

I know what you mean - I just bought/am buying Peter's C14/G11 ....

Congratulations.

[theodog (Jeff)]

Welcome to the club.

[RickS (Rick)]

Congrats, Lee! Keep the clouds north of Brisbane please

[Baddad (Marty)]

Good one lee.
I assume we will be getting heaps of that wet stuff for a while. But, thanks for the early warning. At least we all know that we will be getting lots of rain soon.
I must admit you have been brave to admit to such a toy purchase. Me? I'm a coward. I wouldn't admit it and just blame the rain on someone else LOL.

What was wrong with the EQ6? An 8 is a big step and heavy.

Hope it serves you well.

Cheers

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Thanks everyone! :-)

Originally Posted by rustigsmed

awesome work Lee, what are you going to throw on top??

Just going to keep the existing RC8 and ED80 for now.

Originally Posted by DarkArts

I know what you mean - I just bought/am buying Peter's C14/G11 ....

Congratulations.

Nice one!

Originally Posted by Baddad

Good one lee.
I assume we will be getting heaps of that wet stuff for a while. But, thanks for the early warning. At least we all know that we will be getting lots of rain soon.
I must admit you have been brave to admit to such a toy purchase. Me? I'm a coward. I wouldn't admit it and just blame the rain on someone else LOL.

What was wrong with the EQ6? An 8 is a big step and heavy.

Hope it serves you well.

Cheers

haha no worries for the early warning :-)

The EQ6 was fine but I couldn't seem to get the RMS down to sufficiently low numbers for the RC8 & Atik 314L+ combo. My primary interest is in photographing galaxies, and I've spent months tweaking guiding and trying various things but I can't quite get there.

To be honest I'm not sure if 0.82"/px is just too much for the mount, or whether it requires more knowledge than I currently have. Either way, I figured I'm never going to say "Gee, I wish I didn't have a mount this good!" so I pulled the trigger on it. I live in pretty dark skies and it'll stay on my property so the weight isn't really a factor for me.