Later in the mid-1990s i acquired my own "proper" telescopes. A 6" F/6 Newtonian, and 90mm F/11 refractor. The Newtonian was a poor instrument, and was little used, but the refractor gave wonderful views. I recall well the stunning views of Comets Hyakutake and Hale Bopp.
Yours truly in front of the great 72" "Leviathan" reflector in Birr, Ireland.
During 1997 i acquired a Meade 20cm SCT, and had relocated to the town of Kings Lynn, on the Norfolk coast. It was during the summer of 1997 that my astronomical life changed forever - July 23rd, 1997 to be precise. This night i had for me what was the most incredible view of Jupiter like nothing i had ever seen before. The log book which i still have today, is filled with exclamation marks on my comments at the eyepiece!. It was from that point i was totally hooked on observing the giant Planet.
During that year i also became captivated by images by Florida Planetary guru Don Parker showing amazingly detailed images of Jupiter, revealing the details i was seeing, and much more. With further superbly detailed views of the Planet during 1997, i began to seriously consider buying a CCD camera and trying to take images of my own. It was during this period i upgraded my telescope to a 30cm Meade SCT and finally bought an SBIG ST-7 camera, which shortly after i changed to an SBIG ST-5c camera.
My very first session on Jupiter at the beginning of the 1998 apparition was disappointing (after many practice sessions on Deep Sky objects with the new CCD camera.) I soon learned that capturing finely detailed images was FAR harder than it looked. However, on the second session a few nights later, the seeing conditions (of which i knew little about) must have been good, as there before me were detailed images showing everything and more that i could see.....from then on, my results rapidly improved,. and so began the journey that has lead me to the present day.