Here is where we all say hello and let the fun begin ...

I am Bill ... I live in the Tarheel State (North Carolina) USA ... Been interested in astronomy since I was a lad (1969 Moon landing), bummed around with a scope for many years, and finally started getting a little more serious about it in 2008 ... I found AF.net this fall and joined up ...

Currently I am using what I call "Astro-Junk" ... lol ... "vintage" rebuilt and reconditioned scopes ...

Orion 6" Dobsonian Deep Space Explorer - Reconditioned and Upgraded with a new 2" Orion focuser, three-vane curved spider, new secondary mirror, 70mm Meade Richfield Guider, and converted over to a CG-5 GEM ... waiting for some warmer weather so I can paint her up and finish with full tube flocking ...

Meade 90mm DS-2090 series ... converted over to a CG-2 mount ... added a Telrad and a 50x90 finder ...

... Okay ... that's me ... y'all step in and say hello and let us know a little about you ...

If its ok with you all , i would like to join the south eastern group . I do live in no. va. and i dont know if that is ok with the whole north / south thing . anyway i have way too much stuff to list but have always been intrested in astronomy but was told by my parents that a telescope was a waste of money . Anyway that was years ago and i lost intrest and picked it back up about 5 years ago and have been going nuts buying equipment ever since . Right now i have five scopes and 18 meade eyepieces . I need to go through and get rid of some stuff .There are some good deals to be had out there guys.

Howdy

Jim is the name and I live in Eastern Tennessee and I would like to join the SE group if I may. My son and I have been into this sport for a few years and we're loving it.

We don't have a ton of gear at the present time because we sold everything we didn't use or need. We are down to 4 keepers, a couple 8" SCT's and a couple of small refractors and a few good EP's. Our latest purchase was Binoviewers (whoa!).

Jim

Rich ... brother ... you are always welcome ... btw ... your as bad as I am with gear ... lol ...

Howdy Jim ... nice to have you jump in ... and Welcome ... how do you like your bino-viewers ... been interested in a pair but I don't know very much about them ....

I never really considered North Carolina to be the SE really until now. Then again I never really though about it. I live in raleigh NC, I just purchased my first telescope a few weeks ago (an orion xt8), I also found a great obvervation spot that is a good driving distance from my apartment, I plan to test out my scope this weekend assuming the weather is with me.

FatherGuse thanks for having me aboard.

Since I have never used or tried Bino's before I didn't want to spend a ton of bucks right off the bat, so I went with Celestron Bino's to see what the fuss was all about.

Binoviewers are without a doubt the way to go for planets. The Moon and planets breathtaking almost 3D like in our 8" SCT's. I've also used them on my ST80 and in our small ETX60 BB.

These things are so comfortable to use and give such pleasing views the some day I will spring for highend Denk. Binos.

Jim

I was thinking about those bino viewers . But i dont want to shell out for multiple eyepieces . and i was wondering if me being a eyeglasses wearer , would i have issues getting them both at focus ?. I view with out specticals and just focus the scope for my right eye .

Hi roverich.

Yup that was my issue with Bino's, the cost of matching ep's. But I bit the bullet and bought the Bino's anyway.
You can get a package deal with eyepieces fairly cheap. The used market is where I got mine with eyepieces.

Focus ?? I wear eyeglasses also. Each eye is individually focused on the Bino's. So focusing is a non-issue.

However I did find that if you share the scope with other people then the Bino's will have to be re-focused for each individual viewer, and that's a hassle. My remedy is to not use the Bino's if I have company.

Jim

Hello from North Carolina. Nice to meet everyone here.

Pretty good viewings here from the suburbs of Winston-Salem. Got a Firstscope 80mm Celestron and a 8" Dobsonian I built with a friend.

I would like to get into building telescopes more.

~Magnetar

Hello from the Northeast GA Mountains.

Dwayne