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Mudguts

By Mudguts
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Mudguts

Mudguts

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Hi all :)

Well nearly 6 months in and thought I had better introduce myself, Name is Steve , Live in East Devon.

Arrived into the hobby after many years of gazing at telescopes in shop windows then walking away as I could not justify the expense on myself.

Well last Christmas my kids were looking to buy me something special, and that they did, they remembered Daddy would like a telescope :)

The wife with her limited knowledge on the subject ( bless her ) took advice from all the vendors and on advice she was given purchased a Jessops 900x114 eq as it was the newest one in.

I was like a kid Christmas morning soooooooooooo happy had it together while cooking the turkey.

Problem was it started falling to bits before i even had in fully built , polar allignment rods fell out , other things were wrong but I was not going to let this dampen my spirits. I could over come and if it was broke i would fix it because this was a special present.

This forum kind of became my home, because as I am sure most of you will remember we did not have many clear nights just after christmas here in the SW UK , so I learnt a lot in a short space of time and was web camed up even before first light :)

As a matter of fact my avatar was my first light.

Any way I digress, early Jan clear sky........ oh the LP in the back garden... gggrrrrrrrrr, never mind pack it up drive onto Dartmoor, Yes perfect apart from what seemed sub zero temps , they may have been as it happens. So set up the PA spin round ..... Saturn wow, not as big as I had hoped but clear defined and wow. then on to Jupiter, moons and all, all my christmas's coming at once got a few avi's of them but honest, it was cold and even me being an outdoor person was thinking "enough" I could see the wife starting to suffer in the car so happy with what We had seen packed up and went home.

So the next day went to the car to get the telescope. Now then it was that cold the plastic on the tripod locks had gone brittle and had cracked the housings for the locking nuts half way up the legs, a screw that holds the mirror assembly to the tube had gone missing other things as well, in all it was not in good shape and had little use and looked after like a new baby.

Well I am sure you can imagine how I felt and the wife said this is not good enough get it all together we are off to change it. ............ Into jessops............. ring round the country , all showing stock..... but all faulty returns, at this point the wife said refund please which they duly did.

Gutted.

"tell me which one you would like " :)

Ok so with buget F per pound bla bla bla, I opted for the SW 130p eq2 , even after reading some reviews which were not the best.

Now Call me old fashioned but I am not an online buyer, hang on FLO is round the corner..... Hmmmm

Ok into LCE in Exeter, " this is what i would like.... by the way I can get it for £x at flo, " ok sir I'll do it cheaper, a language I understand.

I would have loved to have purchased it from the sponsors of this site but I just dont buy on line :(

So get the new toy home, what a difference , oh my lord.

Just better in every way better action, stable, smooth a pleasure to use. Instead of using a brown paper and string sticky back plastic and a washing up liquid bottle I now have a scientific instrument in my hands built and fit for purpose :)

Just what has happened the the clear skies this year.

So this is me saying Hi to all even if I have bored u all to tears.

PS I think I have contracted apperture fever, deadly I know lol.

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Mudguts

Mudguts

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Ty Phil,

just noticed my moon avatar has gone ? wonder where that went, oh well sort it when i get to my laptop.

Dartmoor is ok if you get off the roads out of the little car parks the headlights on main beam comming at you take their toll, but you are right it is nice to have it on the doorstep.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Steve and welcome to SGL, I do like your report, it just shows the many pitfalls which can be had from buying from high street retail outlets which are not 100% astronomical.The wealth of advice, which can be had from this forum, as the old saying goes, is worth its weight in gold, to those just starting out, I am pleased you managed to get it all sorted though, enjoy your Astronomy ;)

John.

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