AN OBSERVATORY FOR THE GARDEN

I strongly recommend Stan, Jimcub. He's a perfectionist, he breaks down the cost of the job item for item and gives it to you as normal practice. The lads in his teams as really good, and they just carry on whether it's dry or raining. He wants me to ring him when the Observatory is installed so he can come and look at it.

 

As a "cure" for my depression in having the lead time of the Observatory delivery being extended I mentioned earlier that I'd decided to buy a UHC filter from America which was cheaper than it's equivalent in the UK.
The retailer quoted a postal charge of $15 to send it and, fair enough, I paid for the filter and the postal charge. The filter arrived surprisingly quickly and really well packed. But then I noticed the postal charge the retailer had paid to send the package............$26.50, so he'd lost $11.50 on the deal.
Now if that had been a UK retailer who noticed a discrepancy in the postal charge they would have e-mailed me asking me to pay the higher charge before sending me the item.......but this American retailer just paid the higher charge and made no comment or note about it. I contacted him and offered to pay the difference in the postal charge, [to me that was only fair], but he politely refused saying it was part of being a retailer.......I'll buy from him again

 

To be honest, Jiffy, yes, I would. I thought it was unfair that he paid the extra postage without me offering to pay the difference. The fact that he politely refused the offer only makes me think of buying again from him.

 

I've bought this scope on e-bay and I'm picking it up from Kenilworth on Saturday, but this will be the very last one I get. It's a bit bigger than I thought with a 12 inch aperture.


It'll be the one that stays on the mount in the Observatory. That huge fork that is attached to it is really heavy and so I'll be taking it off and putting what is called a dovetail plate onto the scope and that will allow me to attach it to my heavy duty tripod without giving me back trouble.

 

All this lifting and carrying is taking years off you Armandii

 

I wish, guys!!

At the moment, I'm just doing visual work and having to assemble to view and then break it all down on finishing which, to be honest, takes around 20 minutes for the first and around 10 minutes for the second. The scope usually goes out on the Patio a good 2 hours before use for cool down time and also convenience.
But this last 12 inch LX200 scope is meant for use in the Observatory and won't be coming off the NEQ6 that often. Just the telescope and the Fork weigh around 75lbs, and you don't want to be trying to put that, on your own, onto the tripod mount too many times. That weight doesn't include the LX200 computerised mount and tripod which weigh around 56lbs So you wouldn't want to be lifting the total weight of the whole assembly for any reason. That's why I will be taking off the fork and bringing the weight down to around 56lbs. Again, I don't want to be lugging even that weight around in the dark too many times but is why having the Dome installed is vital.
At the moment the lead time for the Dome has over run by 4 weeks making it 14 weeks since I ordered it I've phoned Pulsar today and they're promising to get their finger out and will let me have a delivery date by next week.
I think the guy in the photo with the LX200 is an American who is taller, "heavier" and definitely younger than me. But in response, JWK and Trogre, to your kind and sympathetic comments on how young taking apart telescopes makes me............let me give you the Astronomer's friendly gesture of pointing you to the skies.

 

Some of the stories of the trials and tribulations of people while star gazing are hilarious. The more equipment you get, to make things easier and less complicated, the more harder and complicated they get But, I'm glad I live in the UK where I don't have to wave my torch around to see if there's any Rattlesnakes or Funnel Spiders nearby!!