I can't think of too many real obvious stinkeroonies, so here are my 'Top
Dogs":
First, there's a lot of Orion stuff that gives remarkable bang for buck:
1) XT10 dob. I saw a ridiculous amount of stuff through that scope. All the
Messiers, all the H400s, a couple of 6-billion-light-year quasars, and some
killer views of Saturn. If I weren't such a gearhead, I'd still be using it
as my main scope. I plan to rebuild it a la Highe/Feliz/Bracewell.
2) ED80. Just being able to say that I own a scope that's more or less an
'apo' is really cool. Pinpoint stars, killer widefield views, great value.
3) 9x50 right-angle correct-image finders. Insanely useful and
labor-saving. When I first put one on the XT10, I found that it matched the
stars on SkyAtlas 2000 very well. Made my first trip to Downtown Virgo a
turkey shoot. I use one as the finder on my 18" dob.
4) 40mm Optiluxe 2" eyepiece. I don't have it any more, since I finally
broke down and got a 31mm Nagler, but this eyepiece is the Poor Man's
Terminagler. Great value.
Then, a more recent purchase:
5) Canon 15x50 IS binos. These things just plain rock. As noted a few
months ago, the views of the central Milky Way from Oz with these things
were unreal. After seeing those views, I can just about call it a life.
Next, something in the 'well, duh' category:
6) All my Naglers. Expensive, yes, but oh so nice. After my first view
through a Nagler, I knew that I could never go back. I know that the
following statement is going to seem really inflammatory - and I'm not
trying to slam on anyone else's preferences - but to me, everything else
looks like the view through a paper-towel roll. For me, they're worth the
money.
And then, there's perhaps the most important category of all - used stuff:
7) Intes-Micro Alter M603. 6" f/10 Mak-Cass, which George Feliz sold to me
for a very reasonable price at an SJAA swap meet a few years ago. I
absolutely love this scope. The hours I've spent looking at the moon
through it have been some of my best observing times. Haven't used it a
whole lot on DSOs, although I did do some of my winter H400s with it. This
has turned out to be a huge bang-for-buck purchase.
8) 18" f/4.5 Obsession. Originally owned by Michelle Stone, then Mark
Wagner, and sold to me by Mark for a very reasonable price. The
bang-for-buck meter is totally pegged on this one. "Annie" has been real
real easy to fall in love with. Only the most dire fiscal necessity would
make me sell her. All of the other astro gear would go first.
I guess there's only one thing that I've been really disappointed with, and
that's been my Stellarvue red-dot finder. Apologies to the TACo that I
bought it from, but I find that it has a lot more parallax than the Orion
finder, and is much harder to mount and aim.
Ah, gear, and discussions about gear. Life is good.
Marek Cichanski
Received on Fri Oct 28 16:27:11 2005