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Hello from the Midwest

Mikester

By Mikester
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Mikester

Mikester

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Hi everyone, my name is Mike!

I'm a master sergeant in the USAF stationed at Scott SFB , IL (avionics tech by trade); and will be hitting the magic 20yr mark in a couple short months. I returned not so long ago from a 1yr tour in Afghanistan, which was NO FUN- but very rewarding both personally and professionally... I have been all over the world in my career; and spent 11yrs of it stationed overseas (5yrs in Germany, 6yrs in Okinawa)... not to mention the deployments to many exotic & many not-so-nice places=) I am very thankful to have had the experience because it has really opened my eyes up to the size of the world and the diversity of different cultures across the many corners of our little blue island globe. It really drives home a sense of appreciation for what I have; as well as the many cultural perspectives I have been able to observe, learn and appreciate.

I am a father of 4 kids ranging from 7 to 19...

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and happily engaged to my absolutely amazing GF of almost 4yrs :grin:

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My family owned a music store, so I grew up playing music (lead guitar) in local rock/blues bands up & down the great state of California... Still miss home every day. However, I love Missouri- Except the winters are pretty brutal (by my standards, not by people who grew up in cold places lol). But the midwest definitely has a sense of charm to it; and the IL/MO farmland kind of reminds me of home.

My hobbies these days (besides being a dad, which is my favorite of them all) are cars & amateur astronomy. While in Okinawa, I built a very nice, 500hp GT-R; then a 180SX. I am currently in the process of a "wheels-up" build here in the states on a 240SX; which is the stateside equivalent of the 180SX- I stripped the 180SX before I left and shipped everything but the body here for the build.

My Okinawa cars:

1990 Nissan Skyline GT-R

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1994 Nissan 180SX:

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As for astronomy, the cosmos etc... which brings me here lol, I have been interested in this stuff ever since high school. I soak up documentaries like a sponge, and have always been truly amazed at the sheer scope of space. I am a junior at AMU (better late than never) majoring in Space Studies hoping to get into some facet of the space industry when I retire.

After 5-10yrs of drooling over getting a telescope, my wonderful fiancee got me my first one this Christmas. Celestron Nexstar 5SE SCT. I absolutely LOVE IT and look forward to a larger aperture scope down the road. So far, I have bought a lunar filter & 9mm EP & power tank for it (gets here in 3-5 days). Next thing I get is going to be a 6.3 focal reducer to try to maximize the exit pupil when utilizing the 9mm EP (9mm EP gives me 139x mag, but only .9mm exit w/F10). Over the last few weeks, between family, the car and homework, I have spent many hours going over the scope's functionality & doing research. I have spent much time looking at the moon, Jupiter, M31, The Orion Nebula & Beehive cluster in the 25mm EP in the light polluted St Louis sky... This wekeend I think I am finally going to have time to take it out somewhere dark- and I absolutely CAN'T WAIT=)

Anyway, that's me in a nutshell. Looking forward to getting to "know" you all.

:biggrin:

--Mike

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estwing

estwing

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welcome along Mike,great into..so rewarding serving your country and looks like it's given you a great life( love the skyline,i had a import WRX and left many red faces at the lights!)..your gonna love the folk here on SGL.

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JonDoe

JonDoe

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Hi Mike welcome to SGL, great intro, we might not all agree on the politics that govern the world but i have the upmost respect for the people who put there lives on the line for others, clear skys and good luck with the studies.

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Mikester

Mikester

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Hello and Welcome to SGL! :)

Hiya Mike and welcome :smiley:

Hello Mike and welcome to SGL

Great intro by the way, enjoy the forum!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

A warm welcome to SGL

Thank you everyone- if you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask. Would love to build enough posts to make a signature & see more of the site=)

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inedible_hulk

inedible_hulk

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Hi Mike, welcome to the forum. I was in Missouri a couple of years ago (a long way to go for a game of paintball!) and was really impressed with how polite and friendly the people were. Never to late to study a new subject, as they say over here (UK) 'every day's a school day' ;)

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Mike and welcome to the forum and many thanks for sharing a little something about yourself. The members here are all very friendly and will certainly help you out with any questions that you may have be it problems or about your next upgrade.

Clear skies and enjoy the forum.

James

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Mikester

Mikester

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^^That's really good to know. I am new to all of this and want to learn the skies and as much as I can about the heavens, then learn to take decent pics of the things I see so I can share them with everyone. I was on another astronomy forum for a bit; and everyone there was really smart & fun to chat and learn from... but alas it seems one of the admins there frowns on personality. Don't worry- by "personality," I do NOT mean vulgar, profane, obscene or otherwise counterproductive to the tone of a science-based forum... Nothing disrespectful or unprofessional whatsoever. I just mean light-hearted and not "so serious" that every single thing I post has to be 100% conservative (boring) in nature. If anyone finds this alarming and would like to know the full story, I will be happy to share. Other than that, it's getting dark and I got fresh batteris. DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!!! Taking the scope out somewhere absolutely dark for the very first time. Excited is an understatement!

BTW, I edited post #1- my computer at work was acting up so I wasn't able to upload one of my Afghanistan pics.

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Mikester

Mikester

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LOL Apparently I was just kidding. I guess us new kids need to up our post counts before being able to edit posts- or is that not possible here?

Here is the pic I wanted to put in post #1

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It's me and a few of my Afghan teammates. Definitely look like a motley crew- but their spirit and brotherhood was something to be marvelled at :D

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