Hi. I originally joined IIS back in 2006, when I took up the hobby after a somewhat traumatic year of 2005, when I went through 3 major craniotomies, where they removed my brain put in a metallic one then removed it as they realised my old brain was much better (Joking).
But seriously yeah, It was a horror year at the local hospital (see My Story**) To prove to myself above anything I was not really round the bend, I decided to look upwards and decided my eyes needed some assistance so built my first scope, an 8" dob as an el cheapo EBay 3" I bought, even had trouble seeing the moon!
Since then life has continued to be a bit rough at times, something was obvious wrong way back in 1989 when they took out a huge tumour from between the frontal lobes. I was only 54 at the time and ended up on Disability Support Pension. But I never gave up (**)
I have been absent for some time and see a lot of new faces on the forum and not too many of the old crew, something I have noticed recently I appear to be surviving somewhat longer than my old colleagues.
Anyway, this is to invite everyone to visit my web site "The Smithdale Pages" which is a sort of rehab blog about how to keep yourself occupied for some 30 years of disability. My Astro page is small, but has some engineering mods I have done and comparison photos of the Moon from a single shot to a small registax print only using a few frames which shows a great improvement.
I also like using film still and managed to get hold of a mint condition Canon 1nS Film cam from Japan.
My blog is now on my own server at
http://dsmithdale.net/ You are very welcome to contact me on any thing you see either by the info given on site or by PM on this forum.
Have a great day - Clears skies
Dave
