I was given my first telescope - a three-draw brass military refractor - by my Uncle John when I was around 10. After a while I swapped it with my brother for a bayonet (as you do!) He made a tripod for it and instantly made me wish I'd kept it by letting me look at Jupiter's four Jovian moons. The next was a four inch reflector I bought from a schoolmate. It had been put together from a Charles Frank kit - he'd even ground the main mirror himself. I have no idea where that telescope ended up - probably my parents gave it away while I was in the Navy.
For years all my astronomy was carried out using bird watching 'spotting scopes': I've had a variety ranging from Bushnell to Optolyth. Eventually I bought another reflector: a six inch on an altazimuth mount. I found it was far too shaky in use, with an inconveniently-placed eyepiece: it was really difficult viewing objects high in the sky, and I soon exchanged it for a four inch refractor. This was also on an a-a mount, and was much more user-friendly. I tried using it for photography, but mounting a DSLR tipped the telescope: the cradle supporting the tube wasn't adjustable to compensate, so I decided to take the plunge and go for an outfit that had the potential to let me take stackable images of the planets, Moon, comets and so on.
For my anniversary Linda bought me this terrific Maksutov reflector. It has a 'go-to' mount, so that using pre-programmed co-ordinates or ones you enter using the handset, the telescope will find and then follow any object you choose. My contribution was the 'power tank' electrical supply attached to the tripod leg: this allows you to use the outfit for hours without running out of battery! There's also a fabulous CMOS USB camera that replaces the eyepiece for photography. At the moment I'm dripping with 'man flu' and daren't risk sitting outside at night to give it a real workout: however, I've looked at Jupiter and Saturn and they were spectacular!
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