I have been selling off some of my extra toys, and I listed my telescope for sale on Craigslist. After all, I never use it anymore, it just takes up space and gathers dust in the garage. I am kind of attached to it, it’s the very first thing I ever built with my own two hands, and I’ve had it over ten years now. I’ve taken it to many local ‘sidewalk astronomy’ public viewing get-togethers, two Table Mountain Star Parties in Central WA, and took it all the way to Oklahoma on our big trailer trip a few years ago. But ever since I started having cold hives (I get hives if my skin gets chilled even a bit, and it’s miserable) I just don’t want to stand around outside in the cold all night, and I can only use it if I’m bundled up like I’m going on a mountain expedition, even on a warm summer night. So I got it out and cleaned it up, and someone came over to look at it yesterday. They said they’d think about it and left.

So it was just sitting out there in the yard when it started getting dark, and there was a nice sliver of a moon out after sunset. I brought out an eyepiece and started looking at the moon. The sky was perfectly still and the view was superb! So I went inside and got another eyepiece, and put on a coat and my fleece pants. A bit later I came in for another eyepiece. Then my moon filter to pick out the details. Then I noticed the big dipper directly overhead and remembered there were some spectacular galaxies to look at in that area. So I went and got a star map and a flashlight. By the time I came back in around midnight I canceled the ad for the telescope.

Maybe the scope is one of those things I should just plan on keeping.