Re: [APML] Total Investment in Equipment

["William R. Mattil" <wrmattil@ix.netcom.com>]

Glenn Shaw wrote:
> 
> In response to the message below, which asks the question if its appropriate to
> discuss costs of investment in this hobby, I answer thusly:
> 
> My first 5 or so published astropictures in Sky And Telescope cost me round
> about 50 bucks.

What year would this have been ? :^)

> On the other hand, my first "letters to the editor" of Sky and
> Telescope cost me $29.50 plus $1.29 shipping for a 3 and one half inch reflector
> telescope advertised in Popular Science. I got up at 5 in the mornign and
> delivered papers in Butte, Montana at age round about 14 to earn money to buy
> this.
> 
> I now know that this was way too much to pay to get into a hobby where you can
> get publishable results.
> 
> A little t hinking and about $5 should get you into virtually any publication in
> the world.

I just did a very quick and unscientific survey :^) Limiting the data to
those pictures made using a telescope reveals:

4" f/5 refractor, ST-8E Didn't say but my bet is an APO :^)
5" APO @ f/25 Pictor 1616XTE
13.1" Cassegrain
32" Reflector
30" f/4.8 Newtonian
6" AP f/8.3
11" SCT ST-7
AP 7" f/9

Maybe my cynicism is showing here but only one of these setups is likely
to be within 3 decimal places of your dollar figure. Common sense says
that the 11" SCT is the low budget set up. The rest are likely close to
or greater than 10K. The start-up costs here are not trivial. And for
those on a single income perhaps doubly so. The beauty of it is , once
your initial investment is made recurring costs are minimal. 

My $.02 worth

Bill

-- 
William R. Mattil	| Fred Astaire wasn't so great.
wrmattil@ix.netcom.com	| Ginger had to do it all backwards
(972) 399-4106		| and... in high heels.

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