My first scope was a 60mm Tasco refractor on an alt az table top tripod when I was 7 I think. Pretty wobbly but I didn't know much better. I enjoyed the views of the moon, but that was about it for astronomy. I mainly used it to look at birds, animals, etc.
At about 15 a mate of mine was into astronomy, and just knew what was where and when in the sky. It left me wondering "How does he know this?" and eventually I started buying astro magazines to try to learn about it. For a long while I used my brother's 20x80 Bushnell spotting scope until he wanted it back. I used to like viewing the moon and chasing Messier Objects and other fuzzies.
At about 21 I lashed out on a pair of Pentax 7x50 binoculars which I still have.
A few years later I bought an 8" f/6 Newt on a Samson equatorial mount with motor drive and drive corrector on RA. I bought it second hand from an old fellow in St Ives who made the scope himself. This was back in the 80's when most newts were about f/10 and occasionally an f/8. The optics were superb. I sold that after about 5 years or so as it wasn't being used - I was in trouble for spending too much time in the back yard with the scope...
After a break of nearly 20 years (and after retiring from rescue, so I was looking for something to do
) I decided to get back into astronomy and bought a C8 on a CG5 mount. A C8 was my dream scope 20 years earlier when I had the 8" newt.
Next I bought a PST and the solar bug got me. I bought a pair of 20x80 binoculars which I still have as well. Then I moved out of town and built the obs. After a year or 2 with the C8 in the obs, I bought an EQ6 and mounted a C11 and an ED80 on it side by side. About the same time I got interested in spectroscopy and got a staranalyser.
Then I sold the C8 and the PST since I found the SM40 etalon on the ED80 performed better for solar work. An then I built my L200 spectrograph for the C11. I also bought a second hand 16" lightbridge for visual work... "the visitor's scope"
.
I got my L200 just about ready to go when my job changed. I now have a much more challenging and satisfying job, and to be honest I just don't feel inclined to spend a lot of my home time doing the technical stuff like sorting out and running the observatory to do spectroscopy... but I just can't bring myself to let go of it yet.
So for now I entertain myself with solar imaging - now with a Lunt LS60F etalon on the ED80 - and other less technical pursuits at home, but I want to get back into spectroscopy at some stage...
Al.