It's nice to finally re-join the ranks of amateur astronomers. It's one of the most enthralling hobbies I've ever been into. Unfortunately there is just not much time or energy to put into it.

I caught a case of aperture fever spurred on by healthy IRS refund. "Buy the biggest telescope you can comfortably afford" is probably advice that needs to be 'taken with a grain of salt'.

Set up is somewhat complicated and made worse by trees and a hillside next to my house. It's hard finding three alignment stars at times. I should probably sharpen the chainsaw.

I was reward though with a nice view of M13. In my old 6" Newt, It appeared as a 'cotton ball' with a good hint of some individual stars. In the C11 it is better but what is really neat is that a large portion of the foreground stars in the cluster have a contrasting 'blue' tint.

Well one good thing about going of daylight savings time...it's dark at 5 o'clock ;)

Thanks again,

Rob