Telescopes - The greatest bargain lens you can buy

So my good friend at work, Leszek Mazur, who got me into DSLR photography in the first place by causing me to lust after some of his work, brought in his new toy to work today. It was his new Celestron 80mm ED - 3.14" f/7.5 telescope that he only paid $312 dollars for (you read that right - there's no missing zeros) this phenominal piece of glass. Now normally this lens is used for Astrophotography, which is what you do when you think that DSLR photography doesn't cost much money and you decide you want to buy some really expensive gear. Anyway, we hooked his telescope to my Canon 1D Mark III, put it on a tripod, used mirror lockup, and took a couple shots. Here's what we got (be sure to click them to look at larger versions to really appreciate them) :

Yeah, remember - this is a $300 piece of glass! It requires manual focus, and is a fixed 600mm lens so it is hard to work with, but WOW is it one hell of a deal!

Now I have to control myself and not get one, but GOD I do want one!!!! I can't wait until he takes his next Moon shot with this bad boy. I'm sure I'll really regret not buying it when that happens!

Enjoy,

Ron