I’ve been interested in astronomy most of my life, but only decided to get serious about it a couple of years ago.  Part of the credit for this decision goes to my friend, Dale Gombert, who has quite an assortment of astronomical gear and many years of experience.  After spending some time at the eyepiece of his Celestron C-14 and being bitten by the "bug," I shopped around for awhile and eventually settled on the Celestron CG-9.25.  I was fortunate to get a "close-out" price on one of the last of this model available, soon after the company ceased production (the C-9.25 optical tube is currently being sold with a lower quality mount).  The optics of this telescope are superb for it’s aperture and the German equatorial mount, made by Losmandy, is well-constructed, stable, and provides good tracking ability within it’s weight limitation.  However, the tripod included with this telescope is of poor quality (not the same as the one sold by Losmandy), which led me to the decision to purchase a Le Sueur Astro Pier.  I'm quite happy with this telescope setup and look forward to using it on those rare, clear nights with good seeing here in the Seattle area.  For the past year and a half I've been "accessorizing" and there always seems to be one more thing that I need.   I should add that my favorite eyepiece in my collection is the TeleVue 8mm Radian.