Took a picture of Saturn with my cell phone through a 90mm AstroMaster I had just unpacked from the UHaul after moving to Tucson late 2022. I was instantly hooked. Spent about a week trying to take better and better pics with the phone before noticing a store a few miles away that sold telescopes. Hoping to find out what options I had to take real astro photos, I went down to see if they could offer advice, despite the gimmicky name of the store. So, I walked in and met a guy named Dean, and he was the one who named the store Starizona, and he seemed to know am awful lot about this stuff and told me exactly what I should do if I wanted to take pictures of the night sky.
That was mid-December, and for Christmas I bought an 8" EdgeHD. About a month later, Dean was attaching one of his Hyperstars to the front of my rig, and about a month after that, I rounded out the SCT 3-pack with the .7 reducer. From cellphone to F10, F2 and F7 in just a few months.
Who would have known that a blurry little picture of Saturn, that I still have on my phone, would end up being so freaking expensive.......Gotta spend it somehow I guess. Cheers - 'Dustin'
