I have a wonderful wife, who likes to get me nice things. This year, she knew of many different items I “wanted” but didn’t really need. One of those at the top of my list was a good telescope.
After Christmas last year, I had a couple of friends who ended up with new telescopes and I have to admit I was a bit jealous. I’ve had a passion for space since I was a little kid and I just could never really see much using binoculars or small telescopes. Mind you, I’ve not been interested in much Astronomy, but I would like to be able to get out and enjoy the stars a little more, get a little closer to some of those constellations I can’t see too well, things like that.
I didn’t want to spend a lot of money so I started to do some research. Two companies came to the forefront, Celestron and Meade. From there I started to research some pricing and options. I eventually settled on Meade, and their factory outlet on ebay. I selected the TeleStar DS2130At and put it on my wish list. I made this selection after reading about different types and styles and the image quality each would get. After looking at close-ups of the Moon last night, I’m very happy my wife loves so much.
Assembling the telescope took a good one to two hours. Unfortunately one piece came in broken, it got wedged between another box and the outer box and presumably broke in shipping. The broken part was for the sighting tube, so it wasn’t critical to doing a bit of star-gazing. Two other problems I found were broken teeth on the rack of the focuser, and quit a bit of broken glass shards in the primary tube. I assure you, I was very concerned about the glass, but on inspection of the mirrors, I found no cracks, breaks or other causes for the shards. I also found the focuser was very “gritty” and when I took it apart to clean it, I found even more glass. Since this is a factory refurbished unit, I assume it originally ended up with a broken mirror and a lot of the glass shards migrated to the focuser. The factory probably replaced the mirror, and cleaned out the tube, but didn’t realize there was more to be done with the focuser. So after it’s latest trip, more glass came out of the focuser.
I’m not sore about the problems, after all I knew it was a factory refurb, though I would have expected a better inspection prior to shipping. As for the other parts, we’ll see how well their one year warranty works out as we try to get these parts replaced. I couldn’t be real sore after all, I got to look at the Moon last night very close up, I was thrilled.
My next step will be to install the accompanying software, then hook up my computer to the telescope and see how it all works together. I can’t wait to get it outside on our deck to get a clear unobstructed view of the sky. Trying to look through a window introduces some fuzziness and takes away clarity. When I start looking for planets, I want to a straight path for the light.
My parents gave me a really cool new MaxLife 369 LED Tripod Flashlight. It’s a tripod kind of affair with three different brightness settings. The head is mounted at the top of the tripod and can tilt down. This is going to be perfect for those times I’m under the car and need more light in a specific spot. It runs on three, six or nine AA batteries which install into the legs, three each. The more batteries, the longer the life. The three brightness settings switch between one LED, three LEDs and six LEDs, and it is bright; I wouldn’t recommend looking directly into it. I don’t know why I’ve always liked flashlights since I was a kid, and this one is just the latest. It’s pretty cool.
From my wife’s sister and her sister’s husband, I received some new Lego kits. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since May 1977 and for the past few years on my birthday, I get some new Lego from those two friends. This year, I got a mix of old and new. First, they gave me an A-Wing fighter from episode 6, then I got a V-Wing fighter from episode 3, and last they threw in a Clone Scout Walker, also from episode 3. I’ll probably build these over the next few days. Of course, what I would really like are the larger Ultimate Collector pieces, such as the Tantive IV, the Star Destroyer, X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE, etc. Lego Star Wars is a great combination of two passions, and now that I have a son, I’ll be passing that on to him as well.
That wraps it up for this years birthday. Off to do some more star gazing.
Asa Jay
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