Astronomy Buffs...

[artsifrtsi]

For all those that are atronomy buffs, I just picked up a steal. Jenn and I were out at Sams Club, and I strayed off (like usual) and found the clearance isle. Well, there all alone and miserable looking was this little telescope. Looked over this former floor model, and all I saw wrong with it was a broken part on the tripod, and a few minor parts missing. (nuts & bolts, accesory tray and 1 eyepiece) Asked a passing employee what the price was, and they told me to wait and got a mngr. I was offered $25 for it, so I went ahead and added it to the cart. When I got home with this treasure, I immediately looked it up online, and low and behold, this little jewel Bushnell Northern Light Series, model #78-8890... lists for (get this) $543.95, most online stores have it for $380.00... WOW, I TOTALLY got a STEAL!!! This is supposed to be a VERY nice scope, has a digitally controlled motorized base on the tripod. Now I just need to spend about another $30 to get the missing pieces, in addition pick up a few different eyepieces, a t-mount for my camera, a good barlow, and a stout carrying case, and my campouts will be more entertaining. I cannot wait for another clear night!

 

[RichP]

A friend of mine who just moved to hawaii went his usual way and bought the best he could find, scope came in 4 milspec case, computer controlled too. He had his deck reinforced to reduce trembling and from his house to the blue mountain ski area 25mi away you could recognize faces. I remember when he told me how much and I popped out with 'Man, thats a new wrangler sahara'.
I'll just make due with my 10x50 zeiss binos for now that I inherited..

 

[XJ Dreamin']

I grew up with my Grandfather's handmade 5" reflector. You could see the rings of Saturn as well as five or six moons, and several moons of Jupiter. You could just make out the red eye storm on Jupiter. With the 30x eye piece you could see only one quarter of the moon at a time. The mountains along the terminator had an almost 3D effect. And that was all from about 400' AMSL in the Missouri River bottom. He even had his own homemade tracking motor.

You could also look into the neighbor's living room window a quarter-mile away (we didn't have an angle on their bedroom window, more's the pity - Mrs. Machens was hot! :rof.

Great buy! Have fun. Name an NEO for me and I'll buy you a six of Shiner :thumbup: