Equipment

Scope 1 A 76mm reflector, 300mm focal length on a Dobsonian mount. Purchased for my son, but I have used it a few times. It is quite handy for a quick grab and go. It is not amazing, having two cheap stock eyepieces, 25mm and 10mm, but it does the job.

Scope 2 My Celestron XLT, 120mm refractor, 1000mm focal length. I have the stock 25mm eyepiece, which is suprisingly not bad. I have also purchased a Baader Hyperion zoom, 8-26mm eyepiece and just recently purchased a couple of BST Explorers, 8mm and 12mm however I am still waiting for these to arrive from a private seller. (I hope it is not a scam, as I paid within minutes, but after 2 weeks and very poor communication, they still have NOT arrived).

Mounts I have 2 mounts, the original Celestron Omni CG-4 German Equatorial which came with the scope and a secondhand Celestron CG-5 Advanced Series GOTO. Both are good mounts, but the GOTO mount is excellent, allowing me to venture into astro imaging.

Bits & Bobs Home Brew Dew HeaterI quickly found out that I needed a dew heater as I would set up the scope outside, and by the time I am ready to start observing, the lens would fog up. Nothing could be done other than get out the missisus hair dryer. After looking at the absoloutly stupid prices that were being charge on the internet by companies for dew heaters and controllers, I decided to make my own. Using a total of 32 1/2 watt, cheap resistors, a bit of heat-shrink, some wire and an LED controller from the internet, total cost under £6.50 including delivery. Works fantastic!

Bahtinov Mask Strange how you can buy these on the internet when all you need is a pattern taken from a freely available online program, print out, stick onto a piece of card (porige box) and cut out. Works great, cost nothing!

Anything Else.... Can't think of anything at the moment, but will add to this section as I go.