Hi everyone, name's Nathan. I've been lurking here for a while and I thought I should introduce myself.
I've been interested in astronomy for ages - I had a 4.5" reflector while I was at school, but what with going away to uni etc, I only just got myself a scope again.
Thanks to all the good advice in the equipment forum I got a 12" skywatcher flexdob, and it's fantastic.
I've had a few good views from my backyard, but I finally got it out to a dark site on the weekend, and good lord, I'm glad I got back into this hobby.
After a cloudy start to the night, we had a completely clear sky from about 9pm to 1:30am, and the Eta Carina region and saturn were incredible. Eta Carina in particular was gobsmacking.
A real highlight of the night was finding the galaxies along Leo's back for the first time (M65, M66, M105, M95, M96 and all the NGCs around 'em), and M51. The Leo Triplet in a 41mm panoptic was special (after that view, I'm getting one), but M51 was extraordinary. The detail was just... wow.
one surprising thing I've found is how much I remember - it's probably been 12 years at least since I paid attention to the sky and it's amazing the constellation and objects I remember.
so sorry about the blurt, but hello, and I'm looking forward to learning a lot more (like how to collimate - man I stuffed that up
).
to the forum Nathan.
too. 
