My tax refund came in.
I just ordered an ETX-70.
I now officially have an expensive hobby.
A storm blew threw last night, and after I got home I looked at the Telestar ... I looked at the door here in the computer room ... I looked at the Telestar ... opened the door, got the telescope, set it up with it pointing out the door, and spent an agreeable 45 minutes or so looking at the Moon sitting on my zafu on the floor here. A great deal of humidity and some clouds moving fast from the storm which somewhat interfered. Contrast wasn't so good, so it was kind of hard to see. It was nearly a full moon. There was a bright spot in Mare Serenitatis (I think it was Serenitatis) which looked like a newly made crater. It must be relatively small since all I saw was the bright white spot and not the round crater shape. The older a crater is the darker it is, and it will usually have smaller craters in it or in the walls. This thing was a bright white, so it must be recent. "Recent" being a relative thing, it could be decades old. Saw bright Tycho and thought of Dr. Clarke.
It is very odd to do something other people do. I'm not quite certain how to think of it. Mostly I'm just thinking about watching Jupiter and Mars and Saturn, and wondering what the heck Plossl eyepieces are about, and if I should get a polarizer filter to cut down on the lunar glare. And why telescope filters are so much more expensive than camera filters. Solar filters and hydrogen-alpha filters I can understand being expensive, but simple color filters and polarizers? What's up with that? I don't remember Mom's camera filters being that expensive. $40 for a polarizer?
It all makes me wish I had a head for numbers, so I could keep going with school and get an astronomy degree. This whole "follow your dreams" thing has really infected me.
Ourobourus in the oubliette!
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