[AstroJason (Jason)]

Hi all,

Firstly let me introduce myself. My name is Jason and live in beautiful light polluted Sydney!! I have been a long time reader of this site but I just joined today. Not sure why it took me so long!

I have been interested in astronomy since I was about 8 years old! I was introduced to the night sky by my mother, who, bless her, bought me a Tasco 60mm Telescope one year for my birthday. It was one of those old red plastic refractors that could barely focus on anything other than the moon! I had it for years and eventually I even managed to see the rings of Saturn through it.

When I was about 13 mum eventually forked out some more money and bought be a 4.5inch Tasco Reflector. I remember it like it was yesterday, got the scope home and then it rained for 2 weeks straight!!! From our home in Bankstown, I used this scope pointed at the night sky from my bedroom window for years. I remember sketching the terminator of the moon in pretty good detail. By time I would finish the sketch the actual terminator had changed slightly, because of course, the moon was moving in its orbit. I could see the rings of Saturn much clearer now and would draw countless star clusters. I wonder where those drawings are now. I wish I kept them! I began buying Sky & Telescope magazines and still have my first issue... July 1996. Comet Kyakutake had just passed through and Keck II saw first light! Wow how things have changed since then. CCDs were just coming out... Anyway I digress.

Pretty much from my first pay cheque I saved up and purchased what I thought at the time was a scope I would keep for the rest of my life! A Meade 12" Starfinder Dob. The truth is, it hardly got used. It was so big and heavy! By this stage I had just turned 18 and started going out every spare night I had... Anyway couple years later (I’m 32 now...) I'm back in the hobby. The Starfinder was sold years ago but I’m looking at my options now for a new scope. So right now I'm scopeless and have massive scope envy!

My current gear is a Canon 60D on a simple tripod. Lenses used here are Sigma 8-16mm and Sigma 50mm f1.4. I also have a Canon 70-200mm f4L IS lens which I have taken photos of the moon with, will post these later. The shots were taken from Newington in Sydney in where you learn to live with the light pollution from all the stadiums!


Anyway that’s a bit about me. I didn’t really intend to write so much in the Beginners Astrophotography forum but these are my first try at Astrophotography. So feedback is greatly appreciated!
Also I would be interested to hear how others got bit by the "astro bug", so please share your stories below!