The interest in stars,... I becomed from my grandmother (+1979),
many about these things she told me from my infancy. In my childhood often
there comed a hobby-astronom (Mr. Auracher) in the workshop of my father,
where he was working on parts of his observatorium. Once I was allowed look
through his telescope to a small part of the moon (immense enlargement); from
him also I became a mirror (~ 2000 mm focal length, 140 mm diameter), witch
is blind in the meantime. Any years ago, when I was toying with the idea
to built a telescope with this mirror came across a cheap FINISHED
model and so I gave up further inexpert handicraft work.
With this reflector (1000 mm focal length, 114 mm diameter)
I spend any partly icy night outdoors observing the sky. In spite of very
long exposure time (till 20" / 400-ASA-films) I succeeded in making any usable
photos
; I am very happy about the parallaktic fitting as well as its motorized
drive.