I have been interested in Astronomy for 30 years and bought my first
telescope as a teenager. After a few years of satisfying visual observing with a
3 inch refractor then an 8 1/2 inch Fullerscopes Newtonian, my career took me to
London in 1978 and I have resided in Hertfordshire since 1996. Whilst living in
London my interest waned with appalling light pollution and seeing conditions.
In 1989, I invested in a Celestron Ultima 11 inch SCT, astrophotography
equipment and light pollution filters which rekindled my interest in Astronomy.
I often travelled 90 miles in search for darker skies to obtain those dream
photographs, but sadly my telescope drive and astrophotography techniques were
not up to scratch.

The arrival of CCD camera's in 1990 was timely and I have been hooked ever
since. Initially I bought an ST4 in 1992 to help guide my astrophotographs, but
quickly became fascinated with its imaging capabilities. From January 1994 I
have purchased various CCD camera's including the ST6, ST7 (April 1995), ST8
(1997), ST8E (two camera's - NABG & ABG), Hale EAC 512 II camera (1997),
STV, FLI Dream Machine and ST10XME (March 2002)

Following the Celestron Ultima, I purchased a 12 inch Meade LX200 SCT (July
1995), a 5 inch F8 Astrophysics refractor (April 1996), a Pronto (late 1996)
Takahashi Epsilon 160 astrograph (April 1998),16 inch Ritchey Chretien on a
MI500 mount made by Larry Myers (November 1998), 10 inch Ritchey Chretien from
RCOS, AP1200GTO and AP400GOTO mounts from Astrophysics, Takahashi FC60,
Takahashi SKY90, TMB 7 inch F8 refractor, 6 inch TEC MCT and lastly a Paramount
ME from Software Bisque (Aug 2002)

I moved to a country location in Hertfordshire in April 1996 and built my
two observatories during the following summer (a high priority) and first light
was in September 1996.