I bought a telescope yesterday...

They say that it's a mistake to go grocery shopping when you're hungry, because you'll end up making bizarre impulse purchases that you'd never make with a clear head and a full stomach.

The same advice clearly applies to telescope shopping.

I didn't realize that I was hungry for another telescope. Sure, I've wanted to own a really good scope ever since I was in first grade, but never quite got around to buying or building one.

While I have owned a bottom-of-the-line Meade go-to scope for several years, I can count the number of times that it's been out of the box on the fingers of both hands. It's a Meade ETX-60AT (see http://www.novac.com/resources/reviews/etx60.php for one disgruntled reviewer's take) that I bought on an impulse one day when I was shopping for groceries at a local Costco. I didn't get the matching tripod - instead, I bought a low-end surveyor's tripod (because I wanted to get double duty out of it - it came with a great 360-degree calibrated swivel head for which I had other as-yet-unfulfilled plans) and fashioned a crude adapter plate to hold the telescope in place. I have used the ETX-60AT with an accessory solar filter to view sunspots (remember what those are?) back in the day when the sun was overflowing with them. I also pulled it out of the box a few years back to look at a transit of Venus - the only trouble being the early-morning overcast that obscured the sun (from my back yard). In a feat of last-minute desperation, I tossed the Meade into my car and drove fifteen miles to a spot on the Connecticut shore, hoping for clearer skies. Sure enough, the skies cleared up for me at the shore, but not until five or ten minutes after the end of the transit (missed it by that much!)... The next one is coming in 2012 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus,_2012). Maybe I'll be better prepared for that one (I'll view it from Japan, if I'm lucky).

So, it's not as though I'm Joe Astronomer or anything close to that.

That's why I was so surprised to discover myself buying a second telescope.

My new toy is a Celestron Onyx 80EDF telescope. It's a sleek 80mm refractor with sports-car looks and (mostly) rave reviews (see http://www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?CatID=60&ProdID=396). It has a list price of $799 (not including frills such as eyepieces, mount, diagonal, et al) and a typical street price of $699, but it seems that Celestron is closing out that model, and several dealers are offering it for $399 while quantities last.

For example, you can find the Onyx for $399 with free ground shipping at High Point Scientific (http://www.highpointscientific.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=3424) or at Astronomics (http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/New%20Products/product_id/ONYX).

Astronomics also sells a more complete kit, part number ONYXPAK (see http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/NS157B5GP9T59NHLPHTG4GMBX4/product_id/ONYXPAK) for $799. The kit includes the Onyx 80ED along with:

• a 2" Celestron XLT diagonal (Celestron part number 93526 which Astronomics sells separately for $139.95 - see http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/FMQNRTR9001K8HFE68PKXTPEC0/product_id/7718)
• a 21mm Celestron X-Cel ED eyepiece (Celestron part number 93392 which Astronomics sells separately for $67.95 - see http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/BWMPVSMT9ADP9NDJM4N64D8861/product_id/CXL21)
• and an Astro Tech Voyager Alt-Az mount (which Astronomics sells separately for $299 - see http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/455BS0F9RD968KREF4BQ6FGR63/product_id/ATV)

When I make a big purchase, I try to get better-than-usual prices. If you frequent one of the online 'deals' sites (such as Fat Wallet http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals, Hot Deals Club http://www.hotdealsclub.com/, and Slick Deals http://www.slickdeals.net/), you can find ways to save a lot of $$$. After all, why pay $399 for something that you can get for $299.

Unfortunately, you can also find ways to spend lots of $$$ to buy things that you were not originally planning to buy. Browsing through the Hot Deals forum at Fat Wallet is just like going grocery shopping on an empty stomach.

So, of course, I bought my Onyx for $299 (more about that in a later post).

In for a penny, in for a pound, right? So I also bought all of the accessories that Astronomics sells in their Onyx kit (but for an even lower price). And then I bought some more stuff to use with the Onyx.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I didn't realize that I was hungry for a new telescope. Now I can't wait for the UPS truck to arrive.