Started in 1978 with a Japanese made refractor that had been handed down from my father's uncle, to my father, to me. It was superlative quality - ash tripod, beautiful white tube, green felt ring lining. Typical Japanese, it was straight through, which being knee high to a grasshopper was no inconvenience whatsoever. I accidentally dropped it once, and seriously bent the drawtube. We tried to fix it.... I still have the objective SOMEWHERE. Lasted me from age 5 to 10
Then came a Tasco plastic not-so-fantastic, that had a finder that doubled as a pocket microscope. It was utter junk, but it was something, which lead to me asking my parents for a better scope - ended up with - as so many here seem to have - a Tasco cherry red 60mm refractor
Favourite EP with that one was definitely the 12.5mm - I could see Saturn SO well, or so I thought. I saw my first galaxy with it (M31), and my first nebula - M42 of course. I tried - in vein - to see Barnard 33
Then the aperture bug bit as I browsed all over the old blue Tasco catalogue.Scribbled notes all over it... eventually ended up with I THINK it was called the 66E, which I bought in Honolulu. It was THE only thing I bought on our holiday. I was 15. Favourite EP had now shifted to 20mm
That was a disaster of a scope, with it's silly alt locking bar arrangement, so I tired of that after a few years, and after saving up for what seemed an eternity, I bought my first reflector - an 8" Bushnell Dobsonian.
I saw a LOT with it. I toured the sky for HOURS every night. It has TERRIBLE coma mere mm off centre, but it did the job well enough, even with the cruddy 40mm Kellner it came with. Wife and I moved to PErth for work, and I gave the scope to a friend. When we came back to QLD, I asked my friend if he still had it, and he did - sitting in his back shed covered in central QLD red dust!
I got it back, cleaned it up, and used it for the next 3 years, until finally, I could no longer restrain my astrophotography bug, and bought a 190mm Maksutov on an EQ3 mount. It was a pretty darned good visual scope, though mirror flop was a PITA, but I learned to LOVE the Orion 40mm Plossl.
I sold that off, bought a laptop (necessary for AP), and settled in - after dabbling with scopes I did not like much (Vixen VC200L, Sywatcher ED100 and a Northgroup ED127), but keeping an ED80 I traded for the EQ3 mount (Regret selling the ED80).
Finally got around by trading and selling, and got my dream scope - Vixen FL102S refractor (that has been owned by a few members here before me, but it now stays here!). Supplemented it with a Vixen R200SS astrograph that, whilst a SUPERB scope, is not "me" (though I had dreamed of owning one since the Tasco catalogue - Vixen made some of the high end scopes rebadged by Tasco) and I recently sold this scope.
So now, it is just the Vixen FL102S doublet, supplemented with a cheap Orion widefield guidescope achromat. I did visual for the first time in many oons last night, and of course THE only EP I used was my beloved Pentax 20mm. I was splitting doubles with ease, Jupiter's banding was HIGHLY evident (a very good contrast scope if ever there was one!), and the Trapezium in M42 was all individual stars - plus I could see enough green tinge to make me happy - not just grey smudge.
My EP collection is VERY large... all 3 of them. My much adored Pentax 20mm, my fantastic Orion 40mm Plossl, and an Orion illuminated reticle