Mike wrote: "I found myself hoping it would be cloudy when I stepped outside. I found excuse after excuse not to setup my gear. I found myself being pickier and pickier with the conditions and wouldn’t bother to image Jupiter unless the seeing was well above average (which this year, has been very rare indeed)."
Mike sounds like you need to take a breather from the self- imposed goal orientated and time intensive direction you've taken. I would knock up a dob mount for the 12" , put it on wheels. Then you can roll it out before dinner, and if it clouds over or you can't be bothered just roll it in.
A bit of aimless hassle-free contemplation of the heavens would probably recharge your batteries for the more labour intensive stuff. I made it through Winter with just the ocassional 5 minute scan of the heavens with hand held binoculars, which kept my imagination sated.
Now I'm looking with enthusiasm at 3 different projects: a paralleogram bino mount for my 25 X 100's, , a Dobsonian mount on a tall tripod for my 6" F8 Refractor and a new lighter weight mount for my 14" Dob.
