Equipment History

My first telescope. A Jason 313 454x. Referred to by amateur astronomers as a Christmas Scope or Christmas Trash Scope* this was my first and only from Christmas in 1979 (I think) and 2002.

I saw the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, the Orion Nebula, Halley's comet, Hale-Bopp and at least one shuttle launch through this thing. I really didn't know how to find anything else. I needed to get a few books and join a stargazing club.

*they are advertised as having magnification powers well beyond their resolution ability (a rule of thumb for a scope is that it can't effectively resolve beyond two times it's diameter in millimiters. for example this 60mm scope would be limited to resolving to 120x. Because they include a 2mm eyepiece on a 900mm focal lenght, that resolves to 450x. Useless at that power). They tend to be overpriced, and have really cheap components, especially the eyepieces (which are 0.96 inches in diameter rather than the industry standard minimum of 1.25 inches). Don't buy a telescope with 0.96 inch focusers.

Ironically, this was one of the better Christmas scopes. I just saw somebody seeking a mint one and willing to pay over $300 for it. Unfortunately I gave it to Goodwill during a Garage Purge last year.

In maybe early 2002 I bought a little Meade 60mm GoTo and was amazed at what a computer could show you, but the scope was too small to really see anything. I took it back and at some point somewhere I bought a slightly larger Meade ETX-70. I used it maybe twice, but again too small to wow you. I still have it in the garage, waiting for Dash to be old enough to abuse it only moderately (at 4, his abuse would be a little too much). He'd also need to learn to read first (menu-driven).

The scope that re-ignited the "Explore the Universe" bug that had laid dormant for so long: a Celestron Nexstar 8i. Big glass, 8-inch), computerized, high power, portable.

I bought this on impulse walking through Fry's Electronic. It was on sale.

I saw more in one night with this puppy than in the previous 35 years.

It got me hooked and now I'm lost.

These are great First (Serious) Scopes.

I sold this to buy the 11" scope below.

Note how bright the backyard is. Very difficult to see the "faint fuzzies". Only the planets and very bright deep sky objects are visible. Need to head east to Tierra Del Sol (75 minutes away) to see the deep stuff...

I'd buy this one again if I were to find one used for around $700 (buy the SE version).

This a great first serious scope: big glass, easy setup, accessories apply to bigger scopes...

Cool Four Years ago (June 2005)

This was my second big scope, which I bought shortly before Dash's birth. A C11-SGT. You get what they call "Aperture Fever" where you want a bigger mirror. Sold the N8i for this 11-inch "upgrade."

An equatorial mount is good for astrophotography but takes a long time to set up. I never used this much: having little free time and a long set up time is a bad combination.

I bought a Nexstar 6 SE tube and was so impressed with it, it inspired me to immediately resell it and sell the C11 and its cumbersome equatorial mount to buy the used Nexstar 11 GPS that I see keeping for a vary long time.