I have been interested in Astronomy and Stargazing from being a child. I initially used naked eye observation and eventually progressed through several sets of binoculars.

In 2010 my wife suffered a massive stroke that left her hemiplegic, paralysed down her left side and blind in her left eye. As her health deteriorated she was eventually confined to bed. 

In an attempt to share the views of the stars that I was experiencing with Diane, I purchased the Skywatcher Maksutov 127 telescope. My intention was to hook this telescope up to a digital webcam, the images from the telescope being transmitted to my laptop computer and from there displayed onto the large TV in Diane's bedroom. This was to be controlled remotely from the bedroom and would enable her to see everything that I was seeing.

Unfortunately Diane died before I managed to get the system working, I lost heart in the project and the telescope has spent many years under a dust sheet and unused.

A good friend recently experienced a  stroke similar to Diane's and he had previously been a professional photographer. He developed an interest in Astronomy and Astrophotography, which in turn rekindled my interest, which  has now resulted in me adding the 8" Dobsonian and the DwarfLabs Smart AstroCamera to my kit. 

This combination now gives me access to all forms of Astronomy Visual Observation and Imaging of Solar, Lunar, Planetary and Deep Sky Objects.