[jjjjohn9 (John)]

Hi everyone,
I am new to IIS and pleased to see from this thread that there are quite a few "oldies" like me making their way back into astronomy. I feel like I am among friends!
I am retired and first became interested in astronomy the 60s with the help of Patrick Moore and his writings. I tried to grind an 8" mirror myself in the mid 60s with the aim of seeing Saturn's rings on edge around that time. The kit I bought said it would require 35 hours work. Alas I found it took much more than 35 hours and I never finished grinding the mirror myself. I paid someone to finish it and it found its way onto a Newtonian eventually.
I really didn't get much satisfaction from the Newtonian over the years mainly because of its bulk and the difficulty of setting it up and then observing with a motorless drive in my Sydney suburban backyard.
I currently have a 120mm f8 Orion refractor which I intend to trade up to something like a 6" folded reflector with the best portability and easiest to set "goto" drive system I can find.
I look forward to learning from the IIS "brains trust" in my search.
John