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I reached out to long-time member and contributor to the classics forum,strdst, for the August restart of this thread. When I asked him about how he got involved in the hobby, as well as the classics, Kieth had this to share.
"My first brush with becoming a scientist began quite early in life. It was in the Jurassic Period where I rolled around the Pangean landscape observing the local fauna while inside of a tooth and claw proof bubble made of "jet age plastic". My mind was full of dinosaurs, my imagination was in overdrive, I was 5. My career path in paleontology was looking bright until my older brother convinced me that time travel wasn't possible and my dad told me to stop digging for dinosaur bones in his shrub beds. I was maybe 7 by that time. My future in science was now looking quite murky when out of no where an "aunt" I'd never met, nor ever met, sent me a copy of "The Golden Book of Astronomy" for my birthday. That was my childhood inflection point. The book's illustration of Saturn was my muse. Astronomy was my new passion.
At age 8 (1960) with an upcoming partial solar eclipse a week away my parents bought me my first telescope for the event. A Gilbert 80X newtonian reflector. I'd been pushing hard for a refractor but the guys in the photo section of the department store, (where she worked selling jewelry), convinced her a reflector gave more bang for the buck and besides it had a solar projection-eyepiece thingie that would prevent her kid from going blind while looking at the sun. Safety first! Optically perhaps the worst telescope ever made. I loved it. Many nights I spent gazing at a blurry image of the moon. One night while trying to locate random stars in the field of view I came across one with blobby kind of attachments on the sides. Thinking I'd found something new I dragged my brother out to verify my discovery. He took a look and said "That's not a weird star, it's just Saturn". Just Saturn! My muse??? I knew then that I'd need a much better telescope to see Saturn as it appeared in my book. I wanted more. Side note: 50 some years later I did experience a " Golden Book of Astronomy" view of Saturn through the 24" Alvan Clark refractor in Flagstaff.
logbook of my youth
More did come, although slowly at first. A Tasco 9te-5 which was optically better than the Gilbert. A few years later an Edmund 3" refractor which was optically marvelous, although a bit pedestrian While childhood dreams of a career in science, in astronomy, had already vanished after being introduced to "higher math" in school (which I sucked at), I could still find marvels in my own backyard on any clear night. In an unfortunate and devastating clam shelling incident I wrecked the Edmund lens in a cleaning/reloading into the cell event. About 30 years passed before I purchased my next telescope, a used Celestron C-8. Stubby and orange, pretty weird really. How times had changed. Being able to resolve some of the stars in M-13 was a wonderful sight but I still longed for a refractor. 15 years later I once again had some discretionary funds (my mom called mad money) and I purchased a used Takahashi FS 102. A fine telescope but at the same time I found the Tak, I also found Cloudy Nights and was introduced to the concept of collecting vintage telescopes. As a casual observer I quickly became a voracious collector. I was finding and buying, (or at least bidding on), telescopes from the1950's/1960's, mostly refractors, Pretty much anything with metal focus knobs, wood tripod legs, wood cabinets, and a good reputation held my attention long enough to make a buy. Some
of the higher end telescopes I bought thinking that they were good investments. Probably not monetarily but in pride of ownership and joy in using I made some good acquisitions. Among the herd, (or hoard), lives a few Nippon Kogaku's, a few Goto's, some Swifts, Asahi Pentax, a Zeiss Telementor, a Sears 6345, 3" and 4" Edmund OTA's, an 80mm f/20 Monolux HOC),
a Lafayette, a 1958 Criterion Dynascope, a Fecker Celestar, and a Royal Astro Optical 76mmX1400mm.
Lafayette Arcturus and Royal Astro R-74 Goto 451 and Goto 453
To my many CN online friends and enablers here in the classics forum, (current and long gone), thanks... I think 
. It's been a fun ride."
Kieth had so many more pictures and I suspect, many more stories to share.I am sure someone could write a fascinating book based solely on the brain/scope trust, background, and experiences of our members here. Thank you, sir, and thanks to all the members who have shared of themselves over the past few years and those whose stories we will learn more of in coming restarts.
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and this note from the moderators
Let's remember everybody, there's no one place that has all the best-used scope finds just as there's no one place that never has anything. All have something. No need to beat subjective matter, whatever the topic, into the ground. For the sake of all of us who love the classic forum, please keep moving the thread forward. Remember that many of your fellow forum members are already vintage themselves. Instead of restating your opinions over and over, consider sharing something new, insightful, or otherwise constructive to the topic at hand.
