I try not to think about quite how much money has been spent on that lot. However, they bring me great enjoyment and will hopefully last me a lifetime. Without too much effort I imagine I could write thousands of words about the APM 180, and one day I probably will in a review. In an attempt to be a little more succinct I would offer up the following. Imagine the most wonderful views you have had through a first class four inch apo, the classic pin point jewels on black velvet, with a purity of image not rivaled by other telescopes designs, and wonderful contrast that allows the finest details to be seen, and then scale that up several times over. It really is just like using a big 4" Apo, that just goes deeper and reveals even more of the heavens. The planetary views on nights of great seeing are extraordinary. And I believe the extremely good contrast allows details to be seen that slightly larger scopes fail to show on DSOs, though the image is not as bright due to the smaller aperture, if that makes sense.