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Greetings to you all

Gildan

By Gildan
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Gildan

Gildan

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Hello all,

I think I've come, or ended at, these forums on a weekly basis (at least) for the past few years. i guess it's high time for me to join the community!

A bit about myself.

I'm from Sevilla (Seville), in southwestern Spain. Married and with three children of ages 5, 7 and 9, all male. I'm 41, a biologist, and work in the pharmaceuticali industry (family-type bussiness, nothing big here, all of it of very small scale). At about 13, if I remember it well, I was sent over (no, I wasn't asked about it) to a boarding school somewhere between Sheffield and Chesterfield (the little village of Spinkhill, to be precise) eventually moving over to the US for my university studies. All in all, I think I spent around 10 years abroad, away from home... at least I learned some english.

Even though I already had developed an interest in astronomy while I as a young kid, those years spent in the boarding school at the UK helped a great deal to develop that interest: we had a telescope (an 8"SCT) and, midway through my stay, an observatory was built to house it... and I made sure I got a fair number of saturday nights use of it!

Then came university, girlfriend -> wife, job, kids... and for some 20 years or so I just had my good old pair of Miranda binos fo fall back on. By the way, those binos survived all those years without a problem, and then came the kids and broke them!

By the end of 2010 I decided that it was time for me to retake this hobbie and, well, got myself some equipment and here we are.

On my return to amateur astronomy, I had it clear that I wanted to get into astrophotography so, after some research, I got myself a 80/500 refractor and what seemed to be a solid enough mount to begin with (Equinox 80ED and NEQ6 pro) both of which I still have and use. As a camera, I used the one I already had; an EOS 550D, but It didn´t take long for me to get a second-hand IR-UV modified 20D which, in turn, got replaced for a CCD. My current tube is a 115/800 triplet refractor although, as said, I still get out the ED80 at times (particularly when it's a bit too windy for the larger scope). Since about a year ago, most of my imaging is done together with a friend of mine and, as we have some roughly similar tubes (very roughly) one takes subs with one filter while the other takes them with another (L or RGB, Ha or OIII, etc). We do all our imaging away from town and have to setup every single night of imaging, so it's a good arrangement.

Right now I am in the process of looking into another mount and, since I have spent quite a few hours in the last few days reading all sorts of posts on this forum concerning this subject, I thought that I might as well join in and, at least, say hi and thankyou for the info!.

So cheers all, and thanks for all the knowledge I got from you all in these last three years!

Daniel Espina.

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Gildan

Gildan

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Thanks for the warm welcome!

I'd say yes, we have less clouds in Spain (at least down south). In winter, if humidity is not too high, we usually have a good share of very clear and transparent skies. In summer, however, although clouds are a rarity, there are too many particles in the air at times, so transparency is a little low. And if the wind blows up from the Sahara (we are a bit too close to it) oh my!, it gets all dirty and yellow... not to mention the heat.

From what I read, we have had a similar winter this year though, so not much has been done.

While we are at it, and until I can put up a signature, if any of you wish to visit my (shared) image gallery, here's the link. Most of the text is also in english so you shouldn´t have too much trouble :wink: . I hope you enjoy it!

Dan.

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