Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Friendly greetings from the dark mountains of Mid-Wales

Bluemaris

By Bluemaris
in Welcome

Recommended Posts

Bluemaris

Bluemaris

Posted
Posted

My name is Stevie and I thought I should introduce myself:

I was inspired to look upwards towards the universe back in the late sixties by the blessed Patrick Moore through two of his books: “The Observers book of Astronomy” and “The Amateur Astronomer”. During this time I learned everything I could about the subject – I spent most of my young life lying on the lawn looking at the sky until I could recognise every Northern constellation and could name every major star. I knew which stars were doubles and the locations of most of the catalogued objects. The only reason I’m mentioning this is because although I knew where everything was, I hadn’t actually seen most of them as my only magnification was through granny’s old WWII German military issue Zeiss 8x30’s (although to be fair, it is only now that I realise how optically amazing they were). That sort of magnification didn’t reveal a planetary disc or resolve doubles, so even to this day I still haven’t seen the rings of Saturn or viewed the dumbbell as more than a small feint smudge.

To cut a long story short, this budding astronomer - in short order - discovered girls, got married had children and ultimately grandchildren and lived in towns under the glow of an orange soup where only the moon made the occasional half-hearted insipid appearance through the contrails and hydrocarbon haze. I was able to give my children lectures about the heavens when visiting dark places on holiday, but two weeks a year isn’t enough and we all forget eventually….

Then, not long ago we moved to Wales, and on the first clear night (about six months after we moved in), coming back from the pub, we were almost blinded by the Milky Way – Perseids were popping every few seconds and the constellations were almost unrecognisable having gained a few hundred more stars each. At that moment I knew I had the opportunity to finally fulfill my boyhood ambition and look at the sky with a magnification greater than 8x. So almost three weeks ago I bought a Skywatcher 8 inch Newtonian (on an EQ5). The day I bought it, we had six inches of rain in twelve hours. Every day since has been wet or windy or both. On days when it’s been sunny, the clouds have built up in the evening and turned to rain - so I haven’t actually looked through it yet. I have a horrible feeling that it will be some time before I get the chance. But I suspect it might be worth the wait.

Still, I’m looking forward to meeting you all in the forums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 44
  • Created
  • Last Reply
stevetynant

stevetynant

Posted
Posted

Hi Stevie - welcome on board - what part of Wales are you in - there's a thriving community of astronomers in the South and a group setting up an observing group in Mid Wales as well - so if you want it theres hopefully some company out there if you fancy a group meet at some point - sure sounds like you could help a lot of people with your experience as well.

looking forward to your first light with the new scope as well should be a real treat for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
stevetynant

stevetynant

Posted
Posted

Hi Stevie - welcome on board - what part of Wales are you in - there's a thriving community of astronomers in the South and a group setting up an observing group in Mid Wales as well - so if you want it theres hopefully some company out there if you fancy a group meet at some point - sure sounds like you could help a lot of people with your experience as well.

looking forward to your first light with the new scope as well should be a real treat for you.

ha ha just read the title of your thread - what a numpty (me that is ) - no wonder you get great views of the Milky Way in Mid Wales - should get even better in a month or so's time- was stunning in Cardigan a few weeks ago and the best is hopefully yet to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
swamp thing

swamp thing

Posted
Posted

Hi Stevie

Welcome to the forum. You've got yourself in a great place to view the heavens, that scope will give you some enormously satisfying views once the clouds clear. Well worth the wait I shoud say. :)

Enjoy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bluemaris

Bluemaris

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Sadly it has been a truly awful summer thus for astronomy. I feel for people who have only just bought their first telescope. Welcome to SGL.

James

Did you say "Summer"? I must have missed it :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bluemaris

Bluemaris

Posted
  • Author
Posted

ha ha just read the title of your thread - what a numpty (me that is ) - no wonder you get great views of the Milky Way in Mid Wales - should get even better in a month or so's time- was stunning in Cardigan a few weeks ago and the best is hopefully yet to come.

No worries - the title was too long anyway. I'm actually in the South-West foothills of the Snowdonia National Park to be a liitle more precise. Unfortunately, I spend a bit of time looking at the Met office's surface pressure charts and have managed to depress myself :smiley:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bluemaris

Bluemaris

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi Stevie

Welcome to the forum. You've got yourself in a great place to view the heavens, that scope will give you some enormously satisfying views once the clouds clear. Well worth the wait I shoud say. :)

Enjoy

It is certainly dark - the house is isolated and you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. The only drawback with living in the mountains is that there are mountains. To both the North and South I have two which have have lost me 23 degrees by being in the way, East and West is OK tho'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JamesM

JamesM

Posted
Posted

Hi Stevie and welcome to the forum. I admire your patience and it will rewarded for sure when the weather picks up and you can finally take a closer look at all the objects you have been reading about.

Wishing you clear skies soon and enjoy the forum.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites
glowjet

glowjet

Posted
Posted

Hi Stevie and welcome to SGL, like your intro, reminds me of my trips to the Black mountains area in my younger years. When you are able to use your scope, with skies like you have, you are going to have one big WOW factor, that's for sure :)

John.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.