I have been an amateur astronomer since my parents bought me my first telescope in 1972. It was a Sears 3" refractor. Over the years I have had a number of small telescopes. In 2005 I finally went up in size and bought an 8" Celestron SCT. Then in 2007 I moved up again to a 11" SCT. I observe as often as I can. I am mostly a visual observer but I like to do some astrophotography. All of the planet shots and most of moon shots  where done with a Celestron Neximage camera.