Welcome RapidEye

Hey Jim,

Please welcome another great addition to IceInSpace RapidEye from across the Pacific, It is good to see you here buddy

I look forward to your involvement in this new but rapidly expanding group.

Kindest Regards

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

and RapidEye

[ving (David)]

rapideye

[Daring Dave]

Welcome !

[RAJAH235]

Hi Rapideye. L.

[RapidEye]

Heyya guys - Thanks for the Warm Welcome!

I signed up a couple of days ago, but haven't really had much of a chance to drill down through the different forums to see whats up/down - gonna be different from my side of the equator

Rob (xreckcor) is the one that got me pointed over here, so if you don't like the smell, you can blame him

OK - so lessee, where do I start...
I've been iterested in Astronomy since I was a kid and knew my way around the sky since. Being an avid hunter/camper/outdoorsman I've always had/used binoculars and spotting scopes and used them to scout around the skies some, but nothing serious.

I've had a couple of cheapo telescopes off and on, but didn't really buy a real scope until a little over a year ago: a 4.5" F8 Orion Dob. I used that little dob from my pasture out in the country of North Carolina to log all 110 Messiers in about a year. As much as I like my 4.5" for its portability and ease of use, I decided to upsize a few months back to a 10" F5 Hardin Dob and a couple of Pentax XW EP's.

So now I'm going back through my favorites that I saw last year in my 4.5" with my 10" and also picking up some new ones that were beyond the grasp of the little guy. My latest escapade has been through Cygnus: logging the Veil and North American Nebulas. The Veil has to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

Now I may be stuck in North Carolina (SE US) right now, but I'm orignally from Colorado. How I do miss the high, dry, and dark skies of the western US.

Also, I took my honeymoon down in Oz about 13 yrs ago and traveled around your neck of the woods for a few weeks. I developed an affinity for Victora Bitter when I was scuba diving in Cairns - so hopefully I'll get back some day

So thats me in a nutshell.

I hope to get a feel for the place in the next few weeks and will be able to contribute somehow.

Besides, any group of guys/gals that can put up with Rob for 6 months and not want to kill him, must be OK

Cheers!
<RE>

[cahullian]

Hi Rapid welcome.
Any friend of VB is a friend of mine

[dhumpie]

Welcome RapidEye. Maybe you can bring some northern flavour (as in DSO's) to our forum

Darren

Jim,

You still **** at the quad bike photo aren't you

Folks you should see it, his young daughter at the helm cool calm and collective, poor ol Jim on the back arms a fly'n everywhere... you see she had the right idea "Where some damn mud!!!"

regards

[RapidEye]

Here ya go Rob!
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...0615#post40615

You'd be scared too if you saw how she drives!

As to the mud...
Its been well christened since that picture, than you very much!
In fact, I got it stuck in a bog last week sooooooo bad that I have no idea how I got it out without a crane! The next morning, the wife was majorly ticked off when she went to ride it down in the pasture and she couldn't find a clean square inch to sit on

Originally Posted by dhumpie

Maybe you can bring some northern flavour (as in DSO's) to our forum

Hmm - well if you are talking beer, then sure - Samual Adams' Boston Lager would be a great place to start. But if we are talking DSO's - you folks down under have us smoked! Sure we've got a couple of nice galaxies in UMa and a couple of clusters in Cas and Pers, but nothing that compares to what you guys get! I'll swap skies with ya for a month - hows that!

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Hi Jim,

Good to see you over here with all us Aussies and Kiwi's

CS-John B

[RAJAH235]

Jim, good to see you know your east from your west on the members World map.
Lots are still swimming or have drowned by now... Some may have even defected??
Welcome to the right side of the globe. L.

[RapidEye]

Originally Posted by ausastronomer

Good to see you over here with all us Aussies and Kiwi's

Heyya John - glad to see another familiar face over here!
Does Rob have to pay you to be your friend and follow you around?
If so - its not enough!

Originally Posted by RAJAH235

Welcome to the right side of the globe. L.

Only problem is Orion standing on his head - dunno if I could get used to that. Must be from too much Tooheys!

I would have posted this before, but I know it would have made Rob too happy. I've actually got an All Blacks jersey hanging in the closet . My folks lived in Papua New Guinea for about 10 yrs and did 2 month RV trip around NZ. I was hacked because my little brother got to go on the trip and all I got was that jersey!
I don't wear it around here too often - most folks have no clue what it means and might actually get the wrong idea from it...

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Hiya. Don't worry about being seen in a Rugby Jumper in the U.S.

Rugby League is starting to boom over there! Check out the site for AMNRL

[RapidEye]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Hiya. Don't worry about being seen in a Rugby Jumper in the U.S.

Nah - that wasn't my concern. Rugby has been a semi-popular sport over here for a while now. I don’t think we’ll see a pro league here any time soon, but as a club sport, its got a pretty solid following.

My concern was mainly over the name of the club – %99.99 of the people over here would have no idea what it meant, and in fact. Many would actually take it the wrong way. I don’t want my wife getting a call from the cops that my lily-white corpse was found behind some dumpster wearing a shredded “All Blacks” shirt.

Maybe I should get a Scottish thistle jersey instead...

[RAJAH235]

Might just be a bit SAFER. L.

Actually when I traveled through out north America some years back, folks would ask me where I was from, I guess the accent was a lil different from any english they had heard before. When I mentioned New Zealand, most folks reply was the only thing they knew about New Zealand was the All Blacks and most didn't know what the All Blacks were except that they were famous... lol so go figure

btw, it cost me a fortune for renta crowd, so much so the UN supplies me foreign aid, heavyly subsidised by the US... boy it's hard being me

Shhhhhh dont tell anyone your here

regards

hehehe, the Aussies are prolly still reeling and sore from the thrashing last weekend mind you we did bust a few you's up

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Hiya. Don't worry about being seen in a Rugby Jumper in the U.S.

Rugby League is starting to boom over there! Check out the site for AMNRL

Ken, they have to do something, they aren't much good at Union, have you seen their team play?

Originally Posted by RapidEye

Only problem is Orion standing on his head - dunno if I could get used to that. Must be from too much Tooheys!

Jim, lucky he aint wearing a kilt!

regards