Another Nice Bargain

The local astronomy store is sadly going out of business. It was always fun to head over there and try out the latest stuff as well as chat to the other patrons. Looking at astronomy stuff online is okay, but it's not the same as being able to pick it up and check it out properly. I guess it's a pretty expensive exerice to run a speciality store like that. They had an eight year run, so that's not bad.

Anyway, they have a closing sale and for the last two weeks I resisted the urge to go there. I needed a break today from work so caved in and went for a look-see. Glad I did! I found an Orion 9*50 right angle finder on sale for $50.00! These would cost me about $95 shipped from Orion, so it was a great little deal indeed. It sits nicely on my XT6 Dob, and I should be able to use it with the LX200 as well! Picture of it above.

We also had some clear nights earlier this week and I set up the Dob out the front. I spent the time looking mostly at M42 and Saturn. The latter looked great on Tuesday night. Cassini's Division was very clear and I counted 4 inner moons. Funnily enough, I also just realized that because my house faces south, and I have an upward slanting driveway, by setting the Dob on the slanted driveway (rather than the sidewalk where I had been setting it up) I got a very rough polar set up! I could move the scope on the azimuth axis to track objects and they pretty much stayed in the field of view without too much altitude adjustment needed. A little bit of luck there! Granted, it's not perfect, but it does make things easier.

Okay, nobody think of clouds for the next two weeks please. I'm hoping to get out in the country the following weekend!