trivia time..golden oldies on scopes....

[shirva]

hi all...was looking back posts and found one from carl saying his dad has started on the scopes....made me think... how old were you or someone you know when they got the bug and how nut's have they went with it ..lol...davy

[shirva]

43 when I started two years ago,,can hardly get to the window in my flat for telescope,mount ect...spare room nope its a scope storage facility....storage/utility room nope its a telescope equipment room....but its neat n tidy for my partner coming over lol...davy

[Spacedout]

Hi Davy,

I was 38 when I got the bug! December 2011, bought my wife a Sky-Watcher 200P as she has a thing for Brian Cox. Needless to say the scope soon became a much borrowed item

Cheers Davy

Karl

[Carl Reade]

Hmm started in my late 20s with a Meade ETX saw fuzzys and the ring, Saturn and Jupiter. I then added a sun filter and was hooked. Dabbled with astrophotography in those days it was camera film ISO 400 to 800 and you had to hand it in to get developed and wait to see if anything came out (how times have changed)

I remember taking photos of the Northern lights years back and the Boots girl saying sorry they didnt turn out (you had to take at least 2 to 3 normal pictures at the start of the film so they could focus their machine)

She told me they just turned out with colours and there maybe a problem with my camera. When I looked at them I was very happy.

Back to subject, due to work the scope took a back seat, all the great photos I seen in mags were out of my reach.

Then I discovered that CCTV cams could take the photos I was always after. So on my 40th this year I was bought the 6 Inch refector and sammy and can now do what I wanted to do years ago. I then donated my ETX to old dad who is now 69 (retired electronics engineer who kept planes in the air) who is now learning his way around the night sky without radar

So thats the story from this end, clear skies all!

Cheers Carl

[wxsatuser]

I got the bug way back in the 60's it's gnawed away at me for nigh 45years, now I can actually do something about it, at last.

[Laurie61]

Started with my first decent scope in 1978. That was an 8.75" newt which I still have I liked the idea of capturing objects to look at later but, back then, film was the only option. I already had some experience with developing film and printing photo's from an after school photography class. I discovered a relative had some old dark room kit he no longer used, bought it off him and then converted a garden shed into a dark room. The scope was better suited to planetary and I used the afocal method with a Praktica MTL3 camera and, the then new, Ilford XP1 film.

[DoctorD]

When I was a kid, I'd look at the night sky through a pair of old binoculars

and be amazed by the number of stars I could see - did not really know what I was looking at.

Did not get a telescope until 1997 inspired by the sight of Hale Bopp. Actually it was my then girl friends scope - she's now my wife and I have her C8.

She still has a passing interest in astronomy but no desire to spend long nights outside in the cold although ahe and the kids all went to the Peak Star party on 2011 and thoroughly enjoyed them selves.

My girls are also interested but want an instant result like a lot of kids today.

That's where the video astronomy comes in.

Paul