Dmill, I just took a look at the pics you uploaded - Very nice work! I had a small refractor when I was a kid - just a basic 200X (w/ Barlow), no equatorial mount, no spotting scope,... so quite a challenge, but very much worth it at the time. My favorite activity was tracking sunspots. But these days I have only binocs. I've been fighting for disability for the past several years, and these days are very tough financial ones. I made the mistake of having to have heart surgery while unemployed and uninsured with only a few thousand in the bank which still made me inelligable for medicaid or any other help. And a whole host of additional health issues that I've been fighting all my life came to the fore and took me down in insidious ways that made me essentially unemployable. Believe me, if I had any extra cash, it would certainly go towards a good scope! So, for now I just have to make do. But it's not so bad - I have a lot of time for thinking and exploring the sciences now. In fact, just perusing the internet (shared wireless with a neighbor) and keeping up with astronomy and meeting and having dialogs with talented, cool people like you is keeping me happily busy. I think I've learned more about our universe in the past several months than I ever did in the years before. The intellectual stimulation of sites/forums like this is simply wonderful.
Sorry for going on and on, I can get carried away,... often.
Anyway, I wish you luck in catching those supernovas, asteroids, and comets you speak of! I have to just "watch" other folks for now, but I still have a lot to learn and catch up on in the meantime anyway
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