Getting to know each other....

[Simms]

Its always good to know what makes people tick - so I'll go first and if you want to follow suit then feel free to post (but dont feel obliged!)

So, I live in Basildon with wife (common law) & two children aged 15 & 8, now working in I.T. for Chelmsford CITY Council after working as a photographer for 5 years - moving out of that game due to it becoming increasingly difficult to make a living from it (and a growing dislike of the general public). I have `been into` astronomy for years, that is, reading and watching lots to do with it, but only been an actively observing since Xmas Day 2010 when I got a pair of Celestron binoculars as a present - the jump to a scope took only 4 weeks after that and straight off the bat my interest was in photographing the night sky, probably due to being an avid photographer.

My current highlights in astronomy are

1. Getting my webcam/finderscope/laptop setup into a guiding rig that works incredibly well.

2. Learning (primarily through this site) how to photograph the night sky and seeing the quality of my images improve.

3. Viewing Saturn - I don't think I am alone in this

4. Having one of my images (Double Cluster) published in the Sky at Night magazine.

I still have a lot of milestones to achieve and things I want to see and do, but I am in no rush to achieve them.

So that's it really - something to break the ice - over to you!

[knobby]

Watcha ...

very shy so lets just say bottom left of Essex !

Married, kids, mortgage blah blah blah, in debt to the government til i die probably. Work in I.T. / Office automation.

Got into Astronomy by mistake really, didn't know what to buy the wife for Christmas about 3 years ago and while staring aimlessly at the many shops near me remembered her saying that when she was younger she always wanted to look through a telescope ... the now defunkt ' photooptix ' was 20 feet away ! result.

Bought her a 70 x 700 refractor ( which really is appalling).

We spent a few nights looking at the moon and even made out Saturn through it.

She lost interest after a few months and I got hooked

Via the route of Ebay / UK astro buy / sell / interested neighbours I've gone from that refractor to Skyliner 150p Dob for 2 years ish to my present scope Skyliner 250px Dob.

Occasionally dabble with photography, strapped my Nikon D300 on the 150 dob for the Moon pic below and have dabbled with the £3 Asda cam and sharpcap / registax etc. for the Saturn pi below.

Thats it really, i'll save the rest til we meet up

And for Bluey ... C.O.Y.I. hehehehehe

[Bluey]

Hey all.

I hate this sort of thing, but here goes nothing.

I live near Maldon with my wifey, well common law anyway.

We have no kids, but she has 4 grandchildren, a couple of whom are quite interested when the scope comes out, so maybe they are future astronomers

I only got my first scope in Feb, so am a rank amateur, and will probably bore everybody with endless stupid questions, but hey ho.

Pretty easy going, quite shy, like a laugh and joke, and love football.

I used to be a lorry driver, have lived abroad, love travelling, and think the night sky is a beautiful, fascinating place.

That's about it really, looking forward to meeting a few of you sometime soon.

[Wobbly Bob]

Hello Essex, My name is Bob, married with 4 kids, 10 grandchildren and 1 great grandson. I live in Tendering and suffer bad light pollution from a rec across the road, GRRRRRRRR. Started Astronomy about 20 yrs ago when I spotted a large Red object in the sky and wondered what it was, turned out it was Mars, soon after I bought my 1st proper scope, an ETX90 a great little scope the first WOW object was Saturn, me and a friend were like two kids in a sweat shop when we spotted it. Since then I have owned many scopes of different guises even making some refractors from telephoto lenses. My current set up is a Skyshed Pod observatory with an EQ6 + EQmod Cestron 8" duel mounted with an 80ED Refractor. The supporting equipment is to vast to list here, more scopes, binos, cameras filters etc.

I have been an active member of SGL for a few years + three other forums from time to time. Love going to Sky Camps, been going for about 14 yrs, great experiance.

If any of our group need help with bits and bobs, just ask, I MAY be able to help.

Clear Skys

Bob

[skywatcher250]

and to steal most of what you guys all said above....

im Si, Simon, Rainey ... whatever you like really just nothing rude haha - just turned 30, just got married, just had my first little girl (she's 8 weeks old now) and my personal life is pretty good at the min. i co-own a property development company and have just sold an IT company (for nothing - loooong story) and am now trying to make millions out of the failing property market and failing

astronomy wise - I'm the biggest fan of theories and actual concepts to do with all things black hole, neutron, red shifted galaxies (the oldest 13.1 billions years old ones), exoplanets, APOD, our solar system and pretty much anything to do with space-time - i guess my understanding is limited but if i wasn't happily married to my wife id ask brian cox for his hand hahahahaha - I'm a firm believe in ET and I'm actually pretty certain based on all I've read that even in our solar system we are not alone (even if its just micro organisms under the moon of Europa)

only recently started looking up (first scope last year) and i enjoy a great deal of time spent with my Canon 7D here on land... ill be taking it to the sky soon enough I'm sure

my current kit (albeit in 55 million different parts and deliveries) is a skyline 250px, my canon 7d, I'm about to purchase a baader hyperion either 8 or 10 mm if not the zoom and a tetrad OR green laser - not yet sure

so thats me ! essex boy through and through - I've been on the only way is essex (kinda) I'm always frequenting the venues in that show and I'm a loughton boy !

nuff said

[Simms]

- I've been on the only way is essex (kinda) I'm always frequenting the venues in that show and I'm a loughton boy !

nuff said

I can't speak for the others, but I will certainly try not to hold that against you..

[knobby]

Si, what does (kinda) mean?

And no I won't hold it against you either, sounds like you're going to be the young whipper snapper in the group, we all seem to be in our 40's

[Simms]

Si, what does (kinda) mean?

And no I won't hold it against you either, sounds like you're going to be the young whipper snapper in the group, we all seem to be in our 40's

37 mate....

[Wobbly Bob]

Si, what does (kinda) mean?

And no I won't hold it against you either, sounds like you're going to be the young whipper snapper in the group, we all seem to be in our 40's

Except me, I am ready for the knackers yard, he he he.

[knobby]

37 mate....

Ooops

[skywatcher250]

haha simms short and sweet mate !

kinda... ok so theres 2 parts to this kinda malarky

1) i and my mrs went to school and know a few of the cast and a couple are acquaintances shall we say

2) more importantly and its a better story too... often 3 of my locals (sugar hut, nu and luxe) are film sets at 12 pm on a saturday night going on til about 3 am so more often than now myself and the guys I'm with will grab a bottle of bubble and "squeeze gently" along to the cameras haha and provide backdrop amusements... haven't a clue how many times I've passed in the background cos i don't actually watch it religiously as its total garbage and an embarrassment haha but i did spot us once... so that kinda is once at least haha

on a flip note my other 1/2 and people i work with thing its cool to go to that girls nail place amy or whatever she's called and you can be sure harry will be at lakeside every weekend haha

[Bluey]

51 here, wow I feel old now!

[knobby]

51 here, wow I feel old now!

I'm only just behind!

[Simms]

haha simms short and sweet mate !

kinda... ok so theres 2 parts to this kinda malarky

1) i and my mrs went to school and know a few of the cast and a couple are acquaintances shall we say

2) more importantly and its a better story too... often 3 of my locals (sugar hut, nu and luxe) are film sets at 12 pm on a saturday night going on til about 3 am so more often than now myself and the guys I'm with will grab a bottle of bubble and "squeeze gently" along to the cameras haha and provide backdrop amusements... haven't a clue how many times I've passed in the background cos i don't actually watch it religiously as its total garbage and an embarrassment haha but i did spot us once... so that kinda is once at least haha

on a flip note my other 1/2 and people i work with thing its cool to go to that girls nail place amy or whatever she's called and you can be sure harry will be at lakeside every weekend haha

I have absolutely no idea what you just said

To be honest, I can't pass judgement on it because I have never even seen it, don't know any of the characters or places. I know a number of the girls at work LOVE it, and my rule of thumb is if they `LOVE` it, there is every chance I probably wont.. I was born 40 mate! Whereas when I was in my 20s my mates would drink Archers, I would much prefer to listen to the Archers on Radio4..

Still, you are an astronomy-nut so you're alright by me!

[knobby]

I think he meant 'short and sweet ' to your I'm 37 ... and the kinda was an answer to me asking what kinda meant in his post about kinda appearing in TOWIE

[Bluey]

Skywatcher, get an SGL t-shirt and wear it to Sugar Hut, sort of subliminal advertising. And I 'm sure in a couple of weeks they will all be wearing them

[skywatcher250]

haha

the only way is orion

yeh sorry simms i just realised that i merged two answers in your 1 ! thanks for translating knobby ... i get excited to easily and start hitting keyboard letters haha

[knobby]

Skywatcher, get an SGL t-shirt and wear it to Sugar Hut, sort of subliminal advertising. And I 'm sure in a couple of weeks they will all be wearing them

Then we could start the Sugar Hut Astronomy Group ... mmmmmm

ponders iffy group abbreviation.

( PS I also like birdwatching and that group name could be a bird or a dance so please let the profanity filter show some mercy )

[bamus]

Got spare 5 minutes at work, so I guess I can use this time to introduce myself.

My name is Adam and I am 31. I am living with my wife and 2 years old daughter in Westcliff. I have being into astronomy for over 3 years now and most likely I like AP. I never was big fan of observing, but perhaps I didn’t have proper scope to look through and LP did not let me see all the fine details I was expecting. I hope that we will find good and dark location in Dengie where I could get a chance to see sky through different scopes.

I am working as a planner for DP World Thames Gateway (Stanford-le-Hope) . Construction is still going on here, but next year we will start operation of one of the biggest container ports in northern Europe (a lot of local jobs will be available soon). Only downside is that another source of huge light pollution is being created here and I am afraid not a lot can be done about that

[skywatcher250]

nice to hear from u adam !!! good old west cliff - love it down there haha !!!!

so what scope do you have now ? always welcome to look through my DOB, i reckon 80% of us will have the same scope though haha

[knobby]

nice to hear from u adam !!! good old west cliff - love it down there haha !!!!

so what scope do you have now ? always welcome to look through my DOB, i reckon 80% of us will have the same scope though haha

Yep ... Hi Adam, welcome aboard.

As Si said, there's a lot of Dobs here, might have to buy a cheapy refractor just for a bit of variety

[bamus]

so what scope do you have now ? always welcome to look through my DOB, i reckon 80% of us will have the same scope though haha

i have got small APO WO 72 on EQ5. Used to have SW200/1000, but it was too much for my small mount.

[knobby]

i have got small APO WO 72 on EQ5. Used to have SW200/1000, but it was too much for my small mount.

Gentlemen ... say hi to our first refractor

[skywatcher250]

that will look odd amongst the dobmobs haha only messing - to be fair id love to have a look through it

[Dave Smith]

Hi all,

Time I introduced myself. It looks as if I'm the old man of Essex as I'm 71 and rapidly approaching 72. I've had an interest in astronomy since living in Nairobi back in the early seventies but didn't really get into practical astronomy until retiring from teaching physics. My chief interest now is deep sky imaging with a DSLR and CCD camera.

There is a whole page of "about me" on my website (see sig) for anyone interested. I regularly attend the Kelling Star party but have yet to get to an SGL one. I do have an observatory (SkyShed POD) but would still be interested in meeting up at a dark site for some imaging with my astrotrac and DSLR. I am an active member of CPAC based near Rayleigh and have been since retiring 12 years ago.

Dave