Okay, I am not sure what that means. For those of you who are long time CN members, when CN started out, it was a whole lot smaller and more ad hoc than it is now. Allister St.Claire, who lives in the Chicagoland area started the site. He and I and Brian S. all got together during this period and spent a lot of time observing together. I began doing reviews for the site with Allister and Brian's frequent participation. Brian and I acquired, tried out, and then sold off a number of scopes, primarily refractors and Dobs, mostly high end examples of each. Brian did not publish reviews independently and formed the Uncensored Tak Group, which still exists today. He has always been a Tak and AP fancier.

I have always been fascinated by telescopes and found myself drawn to refractors. I had and then sold off some supreb DOBs (all Starmasters) when I found the time needed to set up and tweak them was just too much of a bother. My only remaining Starmaster is the unique and now sadly out of production V8.

If you look at the review section of CN, you will get a very good idea of the variety of scopes I have owned. During my more active reviewing period, I sampled pretty much all of the better refractors available along with some high end binos.

When I found my practice eating into my time more and more, I had a choice between posting and observing, but not the time to do both. I chose the latter, and thinned out the overall number of scopes I owned.

I sold off all but one of my APs, as they were simply too valuable as 'investments' and I was not interested in that aspect of their 'value' and had friends who wanted to use them. I kept one, the 130 f/8.35, although I just bought a very nice 150 f/12 Superplanetary.

I sold the 203 TMB and mount as it was just too large to keep without a permanent observatory setup which I could not build where I live on the Western Shore of Lake Michigan, a great planetary site (especially in the winter months when the planets come up over 120 miles of open lake and can be caught as soon as the night falls and tracked all evening) but one where local restrictions prohibit a permanent dome large enough to accommodate a large and heavy refractor. I kept my smaller TMBs, which are listed in my reviews.

I also sold off my Taks, keeping the Sky90 as an H-alpha platform, the FS 60 for various uses and as a 'finder' and the 100 and 150 FCTs now in house. My only 'modern' Taks are the TSA 102 and a pair of Mewlon's, a 180 and a 250 S. I also have some 'historic' Taks, an FC50 and a FC 76.

I am not going to list the rest, as time and length preclude that. Suffice it to say that I 'collect' neat older refractors, such as a Nikon 100 f/12 APO with original mount and pier and own some neat, 'niche' scopes such as the Pentax 75 and several Borgs, the neatest and most underrated of all refractors. Where else can you get a 4" refractor that comes apart in sections and weighs less than a 60mm? Where else can you get a very good 5" ED refractor that weighs seven and a half pounds, comes apart and travels in a backpack, will mount on a cf tripod and costs about $4000 new?

As should be obvious by my more recent posts, I have most of the newer generation of TMB scopes as well as a scattering of other items such as an Orion 120EON, the Parallax 180 f/15, several APMs (115 and 130 f/9.25) with a TEC 160 about a month away.

In other words, life and good observing instruments are meant to be savored. I have never 'lost money' on any of my scopes as most of the high end scopes -- especially the APs and larger TMBs, sell at a premium. The Taks have held their value and whatever I have 'lost' has been compensated by the joy of using them.

I trust this responds to your question? Dave