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The wait list..


David

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It was around 10 years ago when I took up the pain and pleasure that is astrophotography. It really was my wifes fault as she was fishing for ideas for a birthday present with her work colleagues who apparently said..”get him a telescope, what can possibly go wrong..”

 

I,m not going to get into the whole Astro journey thing, done that, but I will share a snippet about one aspect of this hobby..the wait list..

 

if you don’t already know already, there’s an American company who make telescopes and mounts. Their stuff is high quality, really high quality, mounts are hand crafted by artisans  wearing berets whilst sitting on the banks of a babbling brook and their telescopes are hand rolled on the thighs of 95 year old virgins ( I may have switched that around), the lenses are figured on the wings of angels and polished to within an inch of perfection by the breath of a silk worm.

 

To get on to the Wait List for one of their products is as easy as falling off a log but the hard part is what happens next. The endless waiting, the being sucked in to forum threads comparing one high end scope to the other, the constant checking of exactly what time on a given day you actually did get the email saying you were added to a wait list, the hero’s journey of people who have been there before you and can regale you as to reasons why they declined the offer of a scope  when they reached the top of the Wait List…or worse, the unboxing pictures…sob


On the day I got in the wait list, I quit smoking. It’s only fair after all..this can be (but doesn’t have to be) quite an expensive hobby. So I ran a calendar that counted down the number of weeks until I am told I am top of the wait list based on anecdotal 10 year stories and at the same time counted up the amount of money I hadn’t spent on cigarettes. Makes sense, right?

 

Apparently I have saved $65000 based on prices in 2012 but $180,000 based on today’s prices in Australia. Who would have thought..

 

last week I got the notification that I am top of the list, the virgins have done their thing, the silkworm has breathed its last breathe on the lens and has shuffled off this mortal coil  and the telescope has been shipped. Am now setting up a fire sale for the excessive number of scopes from the other Japanese brand as the guilt of having 6 refractors is becoming a little too much regardless of how much I have saved.

 

I’m quite excited. The child I sold to fund the accessories and the duty I have to pay didn’t complain too much. I’ve worked out how I will be able to use 2 mounts to carry 3 scopes so that I can be fairly certain that I can capture lots of photons and my wife’s has been very supportive.

 

but…is it worth it……hell yeah…. 😉

 

unboxing photos to follow…cough..



 

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I bet it was worth the wait. I mean it wasn't that long. It's not like all the stars have burnt out lol. I'm looking forward to drooling over your photo's. 

 

$180,000, that's 132,367.87 in money with the Queen's head on the back, right?

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16 hours ago, Nightspore said:

I bet it was worth the wait. I mean it wasn't that long. It's not like all the stars have burnt out lol. I'm looking forward to drooling over your photo's. 

 

$180,000, that's 132,367.87 in money with the Queen's head on the back, right?

I expect it will be. 
it’s Aussie dollars so about £98k I think

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 Kudos to you David, Id never have the patience to wait 10 years for a scope and no doubt would have been seduced by another fine scope. You have excited the child in me to see your long awaited prize for giving up smoking.

 

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Go on. Put us out of our misery and tell us what it is rather than being mysterious 🙂 . You have got us hooked now.

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6 hours ago, David said:

I expect it will be. 
it’s Aussie dollars so about £98k I think

 

Oh right, I must have forgotten to carry the one, or something. Maths was never my subject.

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  • 2 months later...
On 2/17/2022 at 6:08 AM, AstronomyUkraine said:

Sounds like someone has a box coming from AP. I can't think of any other company that has a waiting list so long. 😀

That’s the one…

Normally you get the scope a few months after getting the notification and paying the deposit but they had one ready to go so it arrived at the end of Feb. 

 

it took another few weeks for the adapters to arrive. All I need now are clear skies. 

 

 

70DBA972-2E7B-488A-A7A4-B2F5C1735B51.jpeg

DF681F7F-F23D-465C-8BA8-78C99AA75F5A.jpeg

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I can now see from the photo that it is a 130mm f6.3 StarFire GTX "Gran Turismo" with (130GTX) if anybody is curious as to what the scope is, I was, as it’s name is not mentioned at all for whatever reason.

Looks like a fantastic scope.

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