Hello everyone, I’ve been interested in astronomy for a few years now. Like most people, it all started with a department store refractor. I realized if I was going to continue in this hobby an upgrade would be very nice. Well I was lucky because a friend of my uncle had made him a 6″ dobsonian and he was so kind as to give it to me. I cannot thank him enough for that, the scope provided many great views including my first view of Jupiter. I used that scope for a few months, but after looking on astromart one day I saw an add for ETX-125′s that were on sale. They were the older version without the LNT device, but that was fine because I didn’t need anything fancy like that. So $325 and a few days latter, I came home to some large boxes waiting to be opened. Ever since I have been treated to goto, an awesome feature that makes finding objects in light polluted areas much easier. When used in conjunction with my iPod touch and an astronomy app, it is a joy to use. I continued to collect other astronomy goodies, mainly eyepieces. I even made my own using some lens sets from surplus shed and some old film containers. Right now I am interested in making my own telescope, hopefully a 8″ binocular telescope. This was the main reason for making this blog, I would like to have a place to post my progress with the scope. This will not be an easy feat because making two mirrors that are virtually the same is very challenging. Not to mention doing this as your first ones, so I am looking for any information that will help me in starting this project. I frequently post on telescopejunkies.com (under the name Astronomyking… call me boring when it comes to names I guess). That forum has been a wonderful source for learning. Besides astronomy I enjoy reading, playing the trumpet, and photography (I’ll try and post some pictures I’ve taken)
