Matches what I've seen with other tools after a hard hit.

Started doing the same thing after I burnt a ribeye on the grill last summer, no regrets.

Oh man, I used to be one of those guys who'd skip the walk around and just go. I figured if the crane ran fine yesterday, it'd be fine today, you know? But then my buddy had a hoist line let go right in front of him because of a chunk of metal caught in the drum, and I saw how fast that wire unraveled. That moment totally flipped my thinking. Now I do the full circle every single morning, even if it feels like a waste of time. It's just not worth rolling the dice over five minutes of your day.

And the fact that he was that specific about the timeline, 3 years, and it basically landed? @wader71 you're right, those old threads are probably goldmines if you can find them.

Yeah that's pretty much it. I spent a year hunting down a nice 80mm f/5 and then realized I was using it to look at the same 4 bright objects on repeat while my dob sat in the corner. @smith.elliot has the right idea. Get the light bucket first so you can actually see stuff, then pick up a used refractor later when you know what you're actually going to use it for. I still grab my dob 9 times out of 10.