Sketching splurges

[SwiMatt]

I thought this would be a funny question to ask! SGL is littered with comments about big expenses pursued to improve the experience as an amateur astronomer, but I'm asking you: have you ever spent a lot of money on an item that you wanted specifically to improve your astro-sketching experience? 

For example, I'm thinking seriously to buy a star tracker, even though for my normal visual observation I don't feel like I need it at all - and I don't really do astrophotography. But for sketching... (OK I would probably start doing some sort of DSLR astrophotography too!)

[josefk]

Not to answer facetiously but have you seen John Boorman's film Excalibur? There is a pivotal scene where Arthur "escalates" a circle of victorious knights stood on  hill to Camelot in about three steps...( i will build a round table for you my knights to sit around (yay)  and a hall around the table (yay) and a castle around the hall (yay) and take a bride to join me in my castle (yay)!!! 🤣

The analogy would be escalation of pencil and pad with simple alt az mounted small scope to 36" dob in a 5m dome under an SQM22 sky - you need to see the film to get the joke. So far i have resisted!

I understand the driven mount though - that has crossed my mind a few times too (sp. for Lunar).

[SwiMatt]

I will go find the movie to understand this better, but your analogy seems already funny to me