I spent the vast majority of my evening with a friend at a local privately funded observatory. The observatory itself is incomplete but he brought his telescope, a Meade RCX400 in 12″

Now, forever ago, I dabbled in amateur astronomy, and enjoyed myself immensely, but I had a very simple mount and a very inexpensive handmade scope. My mount and motor drive (basically, a big ring with a roller on it’s edge) was adequate to more-or less track something once I got it there, but wasn’t much good otherwise.

This meade, I’m telling you, was amazing. It has a calibration routine you have to go through, and once it’s set up, you can go point to point at any damned spot in the sky; it’s a blast.

Now I don’t have 7k to spend on a scope, and i probably never will. THis bastard is about a hundred pounds of carbon fiber, glass, and $kaching. With an aluminum base that is about as solid as they come. Fully electronically controlled. Just point and shoot. We looked at the rings of saturn, a dozen or better messier objects, mars, jupiter. We saw shit that you wouldn’t believe you can see through a scope. Ever see a real quazar? some parts are edible. No, wait… Anyway, it was a great time. It’s harder and harder to find clear skies untouched by artificial light, but if I don’t wear out my welcome, I’ll be taking some pictures this summer, and I’ll post them here. What a blast!