"Tis a joy to be simple, tis a joy to be free" or so the old Shaker hymn goes. That's my philosophy on most things, including astronomy and, especially, astronomy equipment. You might say I'm a minimalist at heart. That's why I love observing with an old 10x50 binocular or even just my two eyes as I recount all the myths and lore of the constellations overhead.

It also explains my love of Dobsonian telescopes. Could anything be simpler? No electronics, no computer, no alignment, no gears, levers or sophisticated machinery to get between you and the sky. Pretty much just wood and glass and a good star atlas to guide the way and not even that when visiting old friends such as Messier objects and my NGC favorites.

Could any telescope be as inexpensive and still provide such awesome performance? Not even close. It ain't fancy and it won't cause a techie to swoon, but a Celestron Starhopper 10" still comes in at $500 and will show you objects a fancy 5" computerized telesccan can only dream of. Chances are, when you run out of things to see with a 10" Dob under a dark sky, you'll be old like me.

After spending all day staring bleary eyed into a computer monitor, checking specs on products, researching more and more technical detail, tis really a joy to leave it all behind and just nudge an old Dob through its paces. To use anything else is almost like bring my work home with me.