The Waiting Game: Dollar Days

No, I don't mean "Dollar Days" as in when a store offers a sale where most items are priced in whole numbers of dollars. It's a measure of anticipation and patience required when you've purchased something that must be delivered at a later date. I thought of this in 1978 when I ordered my first real telescope, an 8" f/6 Meade Newtonian on a GEM. It worked like this: The total cost was about $600, and the wait between placing the order and receiving it was two months (60 days). Multiply the two together, 60x600, and you get 36,000 $days. The larger the amount of dollar days, the greater the "anguish" of waiting you must endure.

I recalled this as I was checking the UPS tracking number on my incoming AT72ED. It has a price tag of $316 (including shipping, insurance, and a nudge for PayPal) and the wait is 5 days. That's a paltry 1,580 $days. Hardly even a mild test compared that old Meade.

Oh, and the telescope is black. I would have settled for any color. At night all telescopes are the same color, and all home-made telescopes look like they were made by a master craftsman.

Although I might have haggled a bit over the price if it had been the pink model from Astro-Tech. Pink would be a conversation started at star parties, which is fine. But I have a feeling that the pink models don't sell quite as well. I base this on the fact that some retailers call them purple.



A pink AT72ED

This doesn't look very purple to me, but pictures can be deceptive.  Have you see one of these in real life, and how does it look to you?