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Been pestering a while
Hi everyone,
I've been here a month or two now but haven't introduced myself in this thread.
This hobby came totally out of the blue for me, I'd never really thought about the sky or space beyond the norm of an average kid of the 80s (I gather kids of the 60s really got into it on a different level).
My wife is studying a lot at the moment and I needed something to make sure I wasn't spending late night binge-watching netflix, or buying useless stuff on gumtree. I'm not sure what made it jump into my mind, but I got the idea that I'd love to try to see the rings of Saturn and so started reading about howto go about that.... things quickly evolved and I'm really enjoying taking photos and liquidating one set of toys in the shed to form another.
I've 3 and 9 year old daughters, I just turned 40 and had a massive adventure bender in Tas before comign back and falling down this astro rabbit hole.
My current state of mind:
1) I'm waiting for a clear night to get tracking going (phd2 and 120mm mini in evoguide 50)
2) I'm really loving playing with narrowband imaging, again waiting to get my O and S filters aimed at something not covered in cloud (I tried shooting through solid cloud last night, confirm that O and S do not much, but Ha still pulls a decent image)
3) I've got an 80mm refractor on the way for wider field imaging, but also about to get an alt-az 100mm fra for pushing around in the dark while the photomaker does its thing... I'm keen to learn about the sky a bit, rather than just see it as a bunch of potential pics (kind of feel thats where I'm headed at the mo).
4) the above 100mm will be my daughters when she wants to use it, I still have an image of the two of us out there looking at stuff together... standing on a ladder and looking through the newt is not the same as having a wander through the sky on your own.
So thats about it. I really need to let my credit card come up for air not. I've been getting out almost every night, I still set up when the forecast is bad and don't pack it away until midnight, just in case. I'm really glad to have the advice from people here, as without being able to meet with the local astro club, it has been almost a singular source of info to get me started.
Anyone from Canberra is always welcome to come over and have a session, by the way.. I've space for at least another few setups in my yard, with a table right there for beers and tea and coffee and mint slices. I'd love to have you round! Just hit me with a message here.
Cheers!
JP
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