[EddieDog (Eddie)]

Hi, let me introduce myself. I'm Eddie, a retired old, decrepit cross-bred dog and I'm not even sure what I'm doing here (not that that would surprise family or friends!). So whilst here I might as well give some history. I first became interested in Astronomy as a pup, and recall as a very young pup in Wiltshire, UK, being fascinated by the night sky and had as apparatus, only my eyes, which I did not fully appreciate then and which, sadly, I miss very much now. No, I'm not blind (at least not when sober) but my eyes are not what they were. So, from there to my early teens in Lancashire, and still fascinated by the night sky...that is, whenever I could see it. I bought an el-cheapo 40mm telescope (bad decision but all I could afford then) and soon learned that such was not at all suited to decent (or even indecent) viewing, so back to my original apparatus...my eyes which is all I've had to date, accept for a long series of various binoculars. Sadly, I gradually lost much of my interest as other activities took hold. Such unsavory things as work and watching football, books, girls and things (the girls was to go the same way as astronomy until my future wife got hold of me...still has!) In '76 I came to Oz and always promised myself that I'd get a reasonable telescope as I still had the urge to explore the skies, but the price was always too much. Finally, last Dec. whilst on hols in New York, I finally bit the bullet and bought one at B&H. A Nexstar 6SE. Yes I know, not good for the trade here but it was either a 4" here, or 6" there, which ended up cheaper than the 4" here including shipping! So here I am, having to relearn a lot, and learn gigantic amounts more. I may well be leaning heavily on the group. I think I'd better finish before I bore the life out of you all.
Eddie