From the age of 8 or 9, and until I was 27, this was my only telescope and mount...
...a Sears(Towa) 60mm f/11 achromat, and with what might be considered as an AZ-1 mount.
I saw Saturn, my very first object ever, and with my late father, through that telescope. As a result, the die was cast, and I have preferred refractors over all other designs of telescopes, unto this day.
When I turned 27, I made a spectacular "upgrade", and to an 80mm f/11 achromat, but this time with an EQ-2 mount. I got a mains-powered motor-drive for the RA-axis, and with it I watched Venus, from 5:30 or so in the early morning, whilst it was still dark, and up until almost noon. At the end of the session, Venus appeared as a pale sphere, and seemingly sprinkled with fine sand; or sugar. Indeed, like a sugar cookie it appeared.
When I turned 39, I got another achromat, a 4", at last, which came with a Vixen GP equatorial mount. But within a day or two, I decided I did not want an achromat for my definitive 4" refractor. After the 4" achromat was returned, I got a 4" apochromat, a Takahashi FS-102 to take its place. For a mount to support the "porker", I chose one of Vixen's largest, if not their largest, equatorial at the time, a GP-DX...
But after just a couple of years, the GP-DX was lost in a conflagration.
Later, I was eventually able to salvage and restore the wooden legs, but the head had been set out at the side of the road long before. A couple of young fellows came by and asked for it, and I told them to take it. I doubted that any good would've come out of that.
Then, in 2012, I got a Celestron CG-4, an EQ3-class mount, yet out of not thinking, and haste. To this day, I've never used it. Instead, I've been using a GSO alt-azimuth during the interim, which is an alt-azimuthal equivalent of an EQ-3...
But about two months ago, the mail arrived...
