I bought 2000m of big glass today ;)

[RichNY]

I lucked out today and was the only bidder on ebay for a really sweet telescope.

I bought a used Meade LX200 telescope with GPS and UHTC coatings for $1120 shipped which is the same as the current $2600 model except for the imaging ACF. 2000m f/10 and 'only' 73lbs/33.11 kg. Now comes the much bigger expense buying eye pieces, cases, and other misc. items.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Telescope.html

[Rooz]

ohhh cool. look forward to you putting that to good use.
i got a bargain on ebay today aswell...a mint condition 30th anniversary lego AT-ST for $39 lol

[Myboostedgst]

My buddy might be picking up a 70-200 VR1 in the next day or so for cheap local! I am hoping he does so I can steal it and play with it myself.

[Phill D]

That looks like quite a bargain Rich well done. I'm sure you will get many happy hours stargazing with that. I've always wanted a telescope myself ever since I had a tiny one as a present as a kid. Never quite had the time or the money to do it though. There was a very good series of 3 TV programmes on over here a couple of weeks ago called stargazing live that has rekindled my interest. I also went to a local lecture recently where an amature enthusiast was using a similar scope with a simple webcam (really cheap <$100) attached. It allowed him to take short videos and then use some free web software to examine the individual frames and compile the best ones into sharp still images. Very neat way to get nice images from a very cheap camera set up. I look forward to you posting your images, maybe it will spur me on to spend some cash myself.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Sweet 8" Rich, enjoy

[DiamondSCattleCo]

ohhh cool. look forward to you putting that to good use.
i got a bargain on ebay today aswell...a mint condition 30th anniversary lego AT-ST for $39 lol

<chuckle> eBay is evil. I keep looking for a d90 cheap, but end up with all sorts of other crap. My highlights recently are an Onkyo 7.1 Receiver ($21) and a Philips media controller for 9

[RichNY]

I'm looking forward to playing around with imaging on this scope but I'm guessing it will be a really long time before I do- there is so much for me to learn about visual observing before I complicate matters with imaging.

I've also heard the same about web cams and it seems like the preferred method to shooting very long exposures is shooting a series of short exposures and then to use stacking software in post processing. Considering how much I dread post processing now I don't think I'm going to be rushing myself here

[Phill D]

You might be pleasantly suprised Rich from what I saw the software was pretty much automatic.

[K1W1]

I'm looking forward to playing around with imaging on this scope

I thought you brought it just to see the other side of your property.

[josef]

<chuckle> eBay is evil. I keep looking for a d90 cheap, but end up with all sorts of other crap. My highlights recently are an Onkyo 7.1 Receiver ($21)....

Wow.. that's a nice pickup on that Onkyo.. lol