Obtainium!
I took a late-afternoon walk around the condo complex. After observing a beautiful monarch butterfly grazing on a neighbor's flowering bush, I rounded the corner of the building and saw a small telescope sitting next to the trash bins.
I looked at it ... it was a bit dusty, but it and its tripod did not look banged up on the exterior. So I went to get the boy toy, mainly because I felt a twinge of guilt at grabbing it, in case it really did belong to someone.
But the boy toy allowed that it wouldn't be next to the mini-Dumpsters if it wasn't intended to be thrown out, so he carried it back to the house for me.
It's a Tasco Luminova refractor, 60-mm aperture, non-motorized mount. Now, I realize that Tasco does not have the greatest reputation among serious amateur astronomers. Still, it's a basic telescope. It looks something like this or this. It's got a basic diagonal but seems to be missing an eyepiece, so it's rather hard to evaluate the optics, other than to say, "Hmm, there seems to be some dust in the finder scope."
Perhaps I ought to ping pedropadrao and see if he could look at it, or maybe I could bring it to a future gathering of the local friendly astronomy club. (IF they don't laugh their heads off at the brand name to begin with.) Borrowing an eyepiece might help me figure out whether this telescope is worth keeping for planet- and moon-gazing or whether I should donate it to the astronomy club for spare parts.
I looked at it ... it was a bit dusty, but it and its tripod did not look banged up on the exterior. So I went to get the boy toy, mainly because I felt a twinge of guilt at grabbing it, in case it really did belong to someone.
But the boy toy allowed that it wouldn't be next to the mini-Dumpsters if it wasn't intended to be thrown out, so he carried it back to the house for me.
It's a Tasco Luminova refractor, 60-mm aperture, non-motorized mount. Now, I realize that Tasco does not have the greatest reputation among serious amateur astronomers. Still, it's a basic telescope. It looks something like this or this. It's got a basic diagonal but seems to be missing an eyepiece, so it's rather hard to evaluate the optics, other than to say, "Hmm, there seems to be some dust in the finder scope."
Perhaps I ought to ping pedropadrao and see if he could look at it, or maybe I could bring it to a future gathering of the local friendly astronomy club. (IF they don't laugh their heads off at the brand name to begin with.) Borrowing an eyepiece might help me figure out whether this telescope is worth keeping for planet- and moon-gazing or whether I should donate it to the astronomy club for spare parts.