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I have a 5 inch paperweight.

Well what can I say? As Richard Wilson might have it "I don't believe it!" The weather once again had conspired against me to delay delivery of the nice new ETX 125 that I had ordered to replace the broken ETX 80 that I wrote about last time. But the big cardboard box duly arrived on Friday. Excitedly I unpacked the goods and wasted no time getting the scope set up - even if clear skies were not forecast for a while it wasn't going to deter me from aligning the finder and just seeing how things
Iris

Iris

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I've been having a bit of a break

I got the little Meade ETX 80 in November sometime and had been using it on and off on a grab and go basis since then. One such occasion presented itself a couple of weeks ago now on Wed 6th. The night time temperatures of -11 or so were keeping me generally at bay and this one was no different - except that for once the sky was crystal clear and the seeing was rather steady. Being the chicken that I am I decided to pop the scope on a window ledge and have a scout around for some of the Mmms in
Iris

Iris

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...and a partridge in a pear tree

The twelve days of Christmas was what came to mind on Saturday night (19th - 20th) as, encouraged by the clear, crisp but cold weather I suited up to try out the new MRF I talked about last time... 3 pairs of socks, 2 wooly ha-ats, and a hot flask of teaeee.... (OK maybe not X-Factor material)... along with gloves, 2 undershirts, a shirt, a fleece and a windproof jacket :-) - all of which were needed in the -8 deg C refigerator that passed for my garden... The Michelin man cometh!..... and out I
Iris

Iris

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Point! Shoot!

Point! Shoot! Pointing the tube thingy is easy - but getting it to point at something that you actually want to view is, well another matter entirely. I hadn't realised just how akward it would be to aim even my little scope and have spent plenty much time flailing around the sky trying to get the target of my attention into the FOV. This is not helped by being unfamiliar with what one actually sees in that little circle of darkeness - you line it up with what you think will be a familiar sight
Iris

Iris

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The dimmest object you can see is your own reflection in the mirror :-)

You know how it is, flushed with new scope enthusiasm - you jump out at any opportunity to set up and have a skoot around the sky. So it was with me in the first few days after the brown box arrived - not that I have lost the bug yet of course. I was being assiduous in handling the little baby but as is the way with things still fumbling about occasionally dropping stuff or picking things up and ever so slightly getting my big paw prints everywhere. Well I had been reading as it happens - about
Iris

Iris

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Telescope - Check! Hat and Coat - Check! Earplugs - Check?

So there I was, day two, waiting for the dark to come so I could try out the AutoStar and GOTO somewhere... I know what you are thinking - I wait until dark and then fumble around trying to set up the mount and learn by error and error how frustrating it can be. Nope I'm much too impatient for that - I decided to set up the doohickey in the spare room and have a play with it there instead! That all went quite well as it happens. Set up the mount then plugged in the AutoStar controller then the
Iris

Iris

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Jupiter in a little brown box

I was watching the lunchtime news when it came - Jupiter, complete with accessory moons had arrived - although I didn't quite appreciate it at the time... I finally did it on Tuesday night - clicked on that little winking button labelled "Checkout Now"; The confirmation flew into my Inbox with a satifying 'plink' and it was now too late to recall the cash so I slowly succumbed to guilty post-purchase pleasure. Wednesday was rather uneventful as it happens; That was until the other 'plink' in my
Iris

Iris

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