osbourne one-nil

I'm guessing my 12v 7ah/20ah battery is dead. I read this, thought "oh dear", have tried charging it, but nothing. Luckily it was only £20, but still....lesson learned. 

Very fond memories of my first telescope - a 60mm Tasco refractor back in around 1982. I loved it and used it as much as possible. It even came with me to university until, one summer, my house was broken into and everything was stolen. When I say everything, I mean everything, except for an Ipswich Town flag, onto which the thieves had written a rude message to the police. They didn't spell it right though as it's normally spelled with a k in it.

When I came back from my visit to Green Witch near Leeds with a 35mm Panoptic and a 6mm Delos, my daughter, who had been nagging me to get a big trampoline for the garden, instantly went on the internet to work out the total price. Once the truth was known, I agreed it would take a cold-hearted dad no to yield to the trampoline request. I guess I'm cold-hearted then.

It is a 1.25" adjustable polarising filter! That's impressive spotting. I ordered it for last week's full-moon Cumbrian Star Party. It came yesterday.

My wife walked in as I was taking the photo and asked what I was doing. "Taking a photo of my eyepiece case" I reasonably replied. I think it brought tears to her eyes.

It was when I borrowed Leslie Peltier's Guideposts to the Stars back in about 1978 from the library. I remember going outside that night and yep....there were the Pleiades. He wrote in such an evocative way, I was hooked.

I still have the book...it's about 35 years overdue. The fine's going to be huge.