The Motherload has Landed!

[calibos]

Well yesterday, my dream was realised. I had intended to acquire these over a year or three one by one. Then the planets aligned and I had some spare cash in my bank account, Televue did a 20% off sale, the retailer was doing another 11% off sale and the Dollar/Euro exchange rate was very favourable. I realised I could have them all for 2500 euros instead of the 4500 euros they'd cost if I bought on our side of the pond. I pulled the trigger and ordered the whole lot in one go and had them shipped to an Aunt in Seattle who forwarded them on to me in Ireland. She took her sweet time but they finally arrived yesterday.

I didn't think I'd get to post the Eyepiece Case pic so soon as I thought I'd have to order a new block of Cubed pluck foam for my Thon Music Equipment Flightcase. However, I had a brainwave and used the inserts from the Televue boxes and just made the dividers out of the Cubed Pluck foam that was already in the case when my Hyperions were in there.

Anyway, heres the pic.

These things are giganty-normous!!

8 green bottles......and a can 'o Coke

Group Hug

Piggy in the middle

[Nexus 6]

Thats some collection you have got yourself calibos, am truely impressed and like your style... get the best at a great price.

Enjoy the views

[calibos]

Cheers Alan. Its actually the second time I've pulled something like this off after a heads up from others. Back in December '08 Meade were subsidising large discounts on Lightbridge dobs for a few weeks. Whether it was for inventory clearance or promotional purposes I don't know. Anyway it was a few hundred quid off. A fellow on an Irish Astroforum I frequent spotted the deal, found that Telescopehouse were doing another 10% off for their Christmas promotion and with the credit Crunch playing havoc with exchange rates, the Euro had reached parity with Sterling for a short time. Pulled the trigger and me and the other lad got our brand new 16" Lightbridges for 1100 euros instead of the European price of nearly 2400 euros.

The funny thing is, I discovered the other guy was selling his LB16 recently. Used 30 month old LB16 for the bargain price of 1500 euros. I'm sure that price is indeed a bargain for a 30 month old LB16 in good nick. However I couldn't help laughing to myself that the cheeky ****** was still making a 400 euro profit on the thing at that bargain price

Me, I have a 30 month old heavily modded (and more to do) LB16 thats been under the stars about 3 times in just shy of 3 years Work, 3 house moves and a family illness have prevented me from making the scope usable again never mind finished.

The shocking thing is that I don't expect it to be done and for me to be able to get back out observing till Christmas, so my new EP's will likely gather dust till then. Sinful I know, but despite the fact that I knew they'll gather dust for a few more months yet, I had to pull the trigger when I did or I would pay for it literally in the long run.

So unfortunately that means no reviews or first light reports from me for a good while yet.

[Nexus 6]

Thats one amazing story calibos, any chance I could hire the lot of you ...just to check its all working fine.

What patience to leave it all until christmas! Good luck with that, think I'd last until the first clear moonless night

I would imagine you may get a few posts on this thread from members just as staggered by your posts and those pics

Best Wishes

[mag10]

I can't print the word that came out of my mouth when I saw the first picture.

Let's just say I'm (really) happy for you and I'm jealous as all get-up!

Cheers and enjoy for the rest of us!

[Nexus 6]

I can't print the word that came out of my mouth when I saw the first picture.

Let's just say I'm (really) happy for you and I'm jealous as all get-up!

Cheers and enjoy for the rest of us!

I had the same one mate!

[MLyons]

Sheesh!!

Is that a miniature Coke can you're using?

Nice kit.

Martin

[brantuk]

Does your aunt in Seattle take orders? lol Very nice box of bits indeed

[anthony]

Looks like the can of coke is being ganged up on!

[pete_l]

Excellent deal! (envy)

Now you have the eyepieces, have you made any plans to get a telescope?

[calibos]

In terms of patience Alan, funnily enough thats a virtue I generally don't have Making these big purchases with the huge savings wasn't patience at play waiting for the good deals to come along, It was more like an example of an OCD Astroforum lurker spending way too much time online and obsessively reading the equipment sections. When you spend that much time on those forums one was bound to come across some bargain 'heads up' comments buried within threads/posts. :)

You may ask yourself how someone who spends so much time lurking on astroforums hasn't had the time to finish his scope in two and a half years. Basically the story is this. Work commitments increased in early '09 and it took me the first year of ownership to heavily mod my Lightbridge the way I dreamed. Then we moved out to rented accomodation for major house renovations. After taking the scope out at the rented house I discovered that some of my mods didn't work out. In an effort to rectify some problems I made the scope unusable. Project managing the house renovations meant I couldn't fix the scope so it went into storage/was mothballed for the next 8 months of renovation works. Moved back to our finished house in Summer '10. Was so mentally and physically drained that I couldn't motivate myself for the rest of '10 to work on the scope. Got myself motivated about astronomy and the scope again after the snow this year but than a family member became ill and was bedridden for months, so that meant no work on the scope despite my new found enthusiasm for all things Scope/Astronomy. So while I had hours free every night, I couldn't be making noise drilling or cutting or soldering etc etc or certainly couldn't get into a work groove when I'd have to interupt work every 20 minutes or so. So that meant I spent hours in the forums at night instead.

Hopefully I will be finished the scope before Christmas but I've said similar before over the last 30 months so I thought I would be conservative and give myself 4 or 5 months ETA this time

LOL With Martin. I knew someone would come up with the Miniture Coke Can thing

Pete, afraid till the main scopes finished I'll only be able to test the EP's out in my finderscope. These can only be a quick observing fix though. While my Stellarvue F80 80mm finder is a great finder as finders go and makes a half decent little spotting and RFT, I can't really make any kind of appraisal of the EP's other than to soak up the 100º AFOV and get a feel for how that suits me or the eyerelief/eye placement etc Because the F80 is such a fast F-Ratio little Achromatic the large AFOV of the Ethos and Naglers are awash with Chromatic aberation and Spherical aberation and coma which makes appraisal of the Ethos' other attributes very difficult.

That said, I'll hopefully make it to some of our observing groups outreach or observing sessions after the Summer where I'll bring along the EP's and test them out in other members dobs, SCT's, Apo's etc.

With regard to my own main scope, I've learned to accept that 'It'll be finished when its finished' She's goin to be a doozy when she is though!

Oh yeah, took this pic the other day too. The Focuser/paracorr/21mm Ethos stack is over a foot long. Makes rationalising the purchase of the whole set of Ethos even easier. Can you imagine adding a 2" 2x Powermate to that stack to fill in focal length gaps had I not bought the lot!!

[Moonshane]

That said, I'll hopefully make it to some of our observing groups outreach or observing sessions after the Summer where I'll bring along the EP's and test them out in other members dobs, SCT's, Apo's etc.

ahhh, the truth finally comes out. you are a dealer in the drugs that are Ethoi and trying to get everyone hooked with a free look. then you can swoop and now they are addicted you can supply their craving

(In case you think I am not joking I just add this to confirm I am!! ).

[Adz]

Holey mother... Calibos that is the most impressive eyepiece set I have ever seen!

It's a full set of ethos including the 3.7mm and a 31 nag?

In a well collimated 16" Dob I would start drooling!!!

So where do you live so I can plan my next family holiday

(Obviously dont answer that!)

[calibos]

Holey mother... Calibos that is the most impressive eyepiece set I have ever seen!

It's a full set of ethos including the 3.7mm and a 31 nag?

In a well collimated 16" Dob I would start drooling!!!

So where do you live so I can plan my next family holiday

(Obviously dont answer that!)

Yep, full set including 3.7sx and 31mm Nagler. You think thats bad. The guy over on CloudyNights that clued me in on the deal did the same as me and ended up buying the lot during the Sale. At the same time he also got the Brandon Bug and bought most of them aswell !!

I've been able to rationalise the expense because at the price I got them for I'll be able to sell for a profit for a few years and probably break even for another year or two after that given the slow depreciation of these. So they were a 'safe' investment. That said, I didn't expressly buy them as an investment or to profiteer with them, I think they will be a life time set for me so when one amortizes the cost over a decade or two its not so bad.

I posted the following pic over in the Ep case thread but I'll post it here too I guess. Someone over on CN suggested some black satin over the foam/inserts. Didn't have any of that to hand but did have some black baize lying around. Think it looks quite well tbh.

[Stu]

The 21 and 31 look like a couple of bouncers! I've got a 31t5 which is a lovely piece of kit, looks small compared to the 21mm ethos though!

Enjoy

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

[A McEwan]

I'm curious - what focal length is that can of Coke and how wide a field does it give? Does it come with a 2" adapter?

Ant