It’t been a while since we’ve visited this topic so I thought it might be time for a reboot. Quite a lot has happened to me and my collection since I started a thread on this topic several years ago. As many of you know, a little over a year ago, I sold my house in Cincinnati and bought a condo in Louisville to be near my family. Something that becomes increasingly important to many of us as we age is being near one’s family. We often also often find that we want to lighten the load so to speak and have less responsibility for taking care of a large place. In my move, I accomplished all these goals. My living has also become much easier and more convenient with my move. I went from a 2300 sq. ft. house with three floors of living space, to a 1450 sq.ft. condo, all on one floor. And no longer do I have a lawn and garden to take care of, (which I do miss in Spring). I also gave up a big deck, a large front porch, a patio, and other places where I enjoyed using my telescopes, in favor of a 5’x12’ balcony and a large rooftop patio. So my viewing at home has become more restricted in some ways. But I gained a heated in-ground pool and a heated, secure garage, two things I didn’t have before. Another gain is that I joined a club with it’s own dark site and observatory, and a much more active schedule with regard to outreaches and star parties. Needless to say, I’m now doing more viewing offsite, and less viewing onsite. I also gave up my basement workshop which effectively put an end to telescope restoration projects.
So like life in general, it’s all about tradeoffs. There have also been tradeoffs in my equipment. Down to the nitty-gritty, my classics collection has become much smaller, now I’m down to five classic telescopes and five classic binoculars, which is to say, about equally half of my current stable of instruments. Many of my classic telescopes were sold in order to accomplish this. I’ve gone to a style of observing that I call guerrilla astronomizing, which like guerrilla warfare relies on hit and run tactics, and more limited skirmishes (only with the sky of course). And these guerrilla tactics, like those used in warfare, rely on much lighter, more easily carried equipment. I now have no telescopes with an aperture of 4”, no telescopes with a focal length exceeding 700mm, (with the exception of my Questar), and no OTAs with a weight exceeding eight and a half pounds (4 Kg.). I also no longer have any German Equatorial Mounts. For me, it’s now alt-az all the way, (again, with the exception of the Questar on it’s equatorial for mount and R.A. Drive). I’m also doing a lot more binocular astronomy. To facilitate all of this, I’ve not only gotten rid of a lot of old telescopes, I have also acquired some new instruments, better suited to the task.
So my classic collection of telescopes is now down to what I consider a permanent collection of these five:
- 102mm: Vixen ED102SS, F6.5 (~2000),
- 89mm: Questar 3.5 Standard, F14.4 (1969),
- 76mm: Takahashi FC-76 F8 (1997),
- 70mm: TeleVue Pronto, F 6.8 (~1997),
- 60mm: Mayflower/APL Model 814 OTA, F12 (1965).
So what’s in your classic collection, and are you upsizing or downsizing?
Edited by Terra Nova, 22 April 2024 - 11:36 AM.
