Am I the only one?

Am I the only one who has bought too many things over the years and ended up with a collection of unused astro gear? I doubt it.

I'm strongly inclined toward compact or at least portable scopes and right now I have too many. Two lead double lives as camera lenses and they are definite keepers, t least for now - a recently acquired Scopos 66ED and a bulkier Celestron C5 (the Spotting Scope package). The Meade N6AT as part of the LXD75 bundle at Lidl before Christmas will be around for a while but if I ever get around to it it's going to become a very portable little field-trip Dobsonian, the LXD75 mount is a GoTo platform I wanted for other uses, I prefer AltAz for visual observing. The Ha PST is in a class of its own and accounts for at least half of my summertime observing. Also useful on nights with a clear sky but heavy dew is the Lidl Skylux refractor. On a soggy night when you wouldn't dream of taking your best gear out its huge dewshield comes into its own and there's some basic observing to be had without worring about the aftereffects. That leaves me with three unused scopes languishing in various cubbyholes, a Televue Ranger, a Celestron NexStar 4 complete with tripod and an old Czech 100mm f/10 Newt with a 0.96" focuser.

As for eyepieces? I now have a full set of Hyperion eyepieces (they really are good value for money, and for someone who wears glasses are much better than plossls or run of the mill wide fields with short eye relief) so my Celestron Plossl kit should go (i'm waiting for a potential buyer to come back to me on that). Some of the the others, mostly Kellners, aren't worth trying to sell but I'd happily give them away and a couple should go straight into the dustbin. Then there are two Scopetronix digiscoping eyepieces that I no longer need (the Hyperions are perfect for digiscoping). There's also a trio of GSO superviews and an Antares orthoscopic that I use with the Lidl refractor rather than the Hyperions because they are light and don't strain the drawtube. I have at least 4 25mm eyepieces that I got with telescopes but I doubt if there's any demand for them, 25mm must be the most common focal length eyepiece on the planet...

Has anyone else got a similar sad story of addiction to collecting more and more gear over the years?

I doubt it is a matter of having to much of a collection of unused astro gear, more of a huge choice of gear but not able to use it all at once!

And having too many cloudy nights!!!

Books ... books ... and more books for starters

I did a clearout and sold a few at Cosmos earlier this year along with disposing of others through various astronomy buy and sell forums. That said, the collection still comprises 225 astronomy books and over 800 (!) magazines. All keepers however as they are all very useful references.

Equipment wise, I've seven pairs of binoculars ranging from pocket glasses to 22x100mm and 25x100mm monsters. Those two latter ones are seriously under-used at present with our skies. The 15x70mm binoculars are the ones I use the most: Beautiful views and enough oomph to resolve clusters and snare some of the deeper-sky objects. Better yet, you can just about hand-hold them when seated.

John

I tend to be pretty aggressive at getting rid of unused scopes and eyepieces, but all the other fittings do stack up at a rather alarming rate. I've got saddle plates, counterweights, rings, dovetails, etc. coming out my ears.

-- Jeff.