I took delivery of this "previously enjoyed" 'scope on January 27th -- 3149 days after I got my C8 back in 1980.

After a brief stay in Oshawa (where it eclipsed nearby neighbour Mike Sherba's 16" scope as the largest in Oshawa!), I took it to the farm where it started a new era of deep sky and variable star oberving for me.
 

I brought the 17½ to the farm and had a very nice visual deep sky session on Sa/Su April 8/9, sampling many objects with the new light bucket (and comparing with my old C8).

From modest beginnings in the early evening, this eventually spectacular auroral display knocked out the entire Quebec electrical power grid.

Although impressive after midnight, it wasn't until approximately 1:10am that this aurora brightly covered the entire sky, showering down on all sides with vivid reds and yellows. This is far & away the best aurora I've ever seen.

Randy Hendriks built an 8'x8' observatory, topped with a homemade 7' diameter fibreglass dome. Due to its visual properties when completed, this observatory came to be known as the "Astro-Zit!"

Doug Clapp built a split roll-off roof observatory 8'x8' in size.

Doug's observatory originally housed an 8" Meade, complete with ST-4 and CAT computer. It was the presence of the CAT that led to the name "Litter Box" Observatory.

A 10' square patio was added to accomodate observing with my 17.5" telescope.
 

Voyager 2 did a fly-by of Neptune, and then headed out of the solar system.

JPL Image

Doug, Randy, and I observed the total lunar eclipse of August 17th from The Old MacDonald Farm. Totality was brighter than it was during the December 1982 eclipse that occurred 2422 days previously.