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Hello Maria from London and Norfolk

mariaone

By mariaone
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mariaone

mariaone

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Hello everyone, as you may have guessed my name is Maria, i currently live and work in London as a bus driver, a town full of lots of Light pollution and light fingered ermm people, hence my two locations, my scope is currently set up at my understanding parents house in Norfolk and i will be trying to get up there as often as possible to get in some stargazing. oh and to see the parents of course.

I was always more interested (i must admit) in space exploration and space travel and the science behind it rather than astronomy when i was younger so spent most of my youth satisfied with a small 1" refractor scope set up on my window sill which could show me the moon so i could spot the lunar landing sites.

I drifted away for quite a while (about twenty years) before getting into quantum physics, that lead me onto astro physics and here i am now back into astronomy.

After reading many reviews and poking around on here alot as a guest I recently took the plunge and bought a skywatcher skymax 127 (AZ) goto cassagrain, which i must say it still wont align properly but ill get there, along with some additional lenses and filters. I got my first views of jupiter and its moons two nights ago and it made me wonder how i managed with such small scope all those years ago and made the freezing cold feet worthwhile.

I have over the course of this weekend been bribed by my folks into building an observatory to house the scope with room for further expansion as it has also re-kindled my 72 year old fathers love of the stars. he is partially sighted in one eye and completely blind in the other but can still see just enough to look through a scope and is loving every minute of it.

As of this weekend i have gained an more of an appreciation for the nights sky, before it was just all equations and the maths of how everything works up there but after seeing Jupiter in all its wonder i forgot about the sciencey bit and its was good to just sit back, forget the formulas and marvel at the beauty of it all.

This is the one thing i never realised about astronomy, I always thought it was done by lonely Scientists sitting on a hilltop somewhere in a large observatory and they didnt really get out much, but since i have gotten back into it i was amazed by how many people i know and have known for years who actually have scopes. even my father when i took the scope to set it up this weekend produced all his notes and drawings and astronomy books from over fifty years ago, this was all stuff i had never seen before and didn't even know he had.

So thank you for letting me in on your little secret.

I'm already planning my next scope and will try my hand at at some AP, and in the meantime i will be hopefully getting the observatory up and built.

Oh and getting this one to align properly :grin:

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Michael_E

Michael_E

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Hi Maria

Welcome aboard. I too have just signed up today. You should see my welcome post also. ;)

Great to hear you have found your new hobby after all this time. And nice scope. You should get some great views of the planets and moon with that. Think you have also rekindled your Fathers interest so should be good fun together.

Good luck with the observatory build. Should keep you a bit warmer.

Have fun and clear skies. :)

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Marie and welcome to the forum. If you are wanting to build your own observatory, you might want to take a look at the Equipment Forum and in particular the "DIY Observatories" section for some great ideas and advice.

Clear skies and enjoy the forum

James

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Knight of Clear Skies

Knight of Clear Skies

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Welcome to the forum. I'm also something of a 'commuting astronomer' - I live in Hertfordshire, but have access to some very good scopes in Cornwall. I've just ordered myself a Canon 1100D for constellation photography and general usage, and my next step is to look at the practicality of getting a small scope I can take in and out of my flat.

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