As a sufferer of depression yesterday was a bad day. Feeling frustrated and angry with no good reason at all. I had a nasty moment of doubt over the scope. had I done te right thing, did i buy the best scope, have i wasted my money etc.

It occurrs to me that one way to dea with this is analyse it. It helps.

My scope cost £240 and is one of these 130P Goto and after a month of ownership small niggles are getting to me... The focusser isnt at all accurate and quite tricky to get perfect, the mount isnt as sturdy as it could be, its altaz and i should have eq, is the aperture big enough, should i have got a refracter or a Maksutov?

The only way to deal with these doubts is to look at them.

1) the focusser is cheap..its a cheap scope. A silky smooth one would cost as much as the scope did. My pockets are not that big. Live with it.

2) Ditto mount

3) yes i could have got eq but for the cost of the goto. I am a total nove and an EQ at this stage would probably result in extreme frustration.

I am pretty sure that for the budget available i made the right choice. I still dont know if I want to sketch, Image or visual or a combo of all of them. I think imaging will never reach my expectations on my budget but all in all there is one final point that makes me feel better.

WALK BEFORE YOU RUN

Looking at my invoice I was amazed to notice I had only had the scope since 12th April. Thats only just over a month! I still have a lot to learn and to find out what I want. Of course once I do the resell value of a well kept scope should be quite high and I can have a far better idea of what suits ME.

lastly though, after checking out the prices, barring a dobsy with a larger aperture (and no goto) i still have the best bang for my buck.

One day I will have the knowledge to ditch the goto but until then it is essential to get me comfortable in what i do. After all i am not learning from anyone but myself out there and I am not the most patient of studants.

Ramble over