Hi, Mike, Count your blessings. Your wife is at least sympathetic to your observing needs. I was once married to a woman who begrudged me every second I spent at the eyepiece. According to her, I should have been at one of the exclusive neighborhood parties, brown nosing the Jones's, climbing the local social ladder while having a truly rotten time. I'm no longer in that situation <very large grin> anymore, and am with a woman who enjoys observing as much as I do. We currently live in one of the dark regions around Prescott, and the average night shows stars 6.5 or fainter, depending upon atmospherics, and that's through 60 year old eyes, so I do a lot of observing from the acre of land behind the house. I've been at this, as a serious amateur, since 1968, but did a bunch of observing with a small telescope when I was growing up. Take what you can get now, and as your kids grow up, maybe they will even develop an interest in it, especially if Dad likes to do it. I know my kids d id, even through the turmoil of a quite unhappy 1st marriage. My son now owns two telescopes! :-) /Bob Bob Erdmann - Core Team Member & Webmaster The NGC/IC Project - http://www.ngcic.org E-Mail: bobe@xxxxxxxxx & robert.e.erdmann@xxxxxxxxx -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.