I recently graduated from college and during that time took up astronomy as a hobby. Among my group of friends, I have been the only one ever involved in astronomy while everyone else had little to no interest. Living in the city has limited my ability to experience my hobby to the fullest, and anytime an opportunity arrived to bring my telescope with me during am camping trip, my 8 inch Dobsonian was always left behind for more cargo room. In December 2010 during the Lunar Eclipse, I took my telescope to the observatory for an event they were hosting for the public. Even though the observatory had a several telescopes, mine was the best of the bunch along with a 35mm Tele Vue Panoptic Telescope eyepiece. It was like looking at the moon in HD and seeing the stars surrounding the moon was also a rare sight.

The view with my telescope was so impressive the local newspaper took a picture of the moon through my eyepiece and used it in the next days article. Unfortunately did not have an astrophotography camera so that was the best available option, nor did I give my name and so the observatory got the credit in the newspaper. I showed the article to my friends and the next trip we took I brought my telescope with a 5mm planatery eyepiece, everyone got to see Saturn for the first time in their lives and thought I put something on the lens. Being the only one in the large group that could find the planet, it was a constant job of getting it back in view but was worth every second being able to show them something they will never forget for the rest of their lives. Now we don't go anywhere without my telescope, even at the expense of leg room.

Here is a picture of the article I mentioned in the story.