Hello everyone,
My name is Kevin. I'm 47 years young, an Irish and American citizen who grew up in Ireland, just north of Dublin, ans currently living in Paris, France. I have family all over the US but Buffalo, NY, is also somewhere I call home. I had been stargazing with my dad since I was a kid but started "real" astronomy back in 1995 with my first pair of 10x50s followed by an ETX-90EC in 1998. I moved to Paris in 2000, though the ETX stayed in Ireland and got very little use. With Coronavirus lockdown I had a good opportunity to get my old ETX up and running again. Even though I live in the center of a heavily light polluted city, I have a 20th floor balcony, which helps! And so here I am, hoping to share my enthusiasm and love for astronomy. With a small, slow Mak I have learned to particularly love planets, double stars, and star clusters. That will serve me well in Bortle 8-9 skies!
By day I'm a guitar teacher, guitar tech, and house husband. I'm an ex-physicist (PhD 1999 in photophysics) and an ex-gigging rock'n'roll musician (~1200 concerts since 2001).
I'm a 7+ year moderator on a guitar forum so I truly appreciate the mods' time and attention. (Yes, I have already read the code of conduct). I did recently sign up to another astronomy forum, but while perfectly nice and knowledgeable, it seemed like a bunch of old men and not enormously welcoming. I really want to be part of a community and preferably, a more inclusive one. Just like my beloved guitars, astronomy is for everyone but it can seem unfriendly to anyone who is not male. It's hugely important to me that we overcome that. And so SGL was recommended to me on twitter by one of your awesome moderators and here I am.
I'm looking forward to be a part of the SGL community!