Although I was quite into "space stuff" in my youth - my first telesope was a Tasco from the local hobby shop (1969) - life's other distractions intervened. However, my wife, Gail, and I are now rediscovering the delights of the sky. Our mutual Christmas present, this year, was a 6" Skywatcher Dob purchased from Kahn Scopes in nearby Toronto.
I noticed another post from a Kahn Scopes customer, and, regarding the barlow, it really is just a cheap promotional tool (the nice gentleman at the store said as much).
With the supplied 25mm and 10mm we've had some nice views of Saturn (+ Titan and a yet unidentified moon - maybe Rhea?); the bands on Jupiter and it's 4 large moons; the moon itself - we did buy a moon filter and it works well; and the Orion Nebula & Trapezium which is a real delight!
Since the night sky was cloudy for the first week after we bought our scope, we invested in a full aperture solar filter from Kendrick Astro Instruments (also in Toronto). It is an aluminum cell holding a sheet of Baader Astro solar film.
It gives a clean (whitish) view of the sun's disc with sunspots (as black specks) of various shapes and sizes. Funnily enough, daytime viewing tends to be a bit warmer!
We also bought a few other things, and made a couple of modifications which I'll put in another post. I really just wanted to say Hi1.

Glenn Muller
Grimsby, Ontario, Canada

• Congratulation! - bobsal - January 4, 2002 - 20:52 UTC
  • Can't wait! - dobin - January 5, 2002 - 18:04 UTC