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1st year - Thank you SGL

Vox45

By Vox45
in The Astro Lounge

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Vox45

Vox45

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(please bear with my english!)

A year ago, I joined this forum. What a journey it has been !

At the age of 44 I finally got the chance to look through an eyepiece for the first time; it was on a monday, may 2014, at Les "Rencontres Techniques de Valbonne" in the Alps. (That's me in the middle with a red t-shirt and black coat)

Les Rencontres Techniques de Valbonne

There I made a friend, a former Air France Pilot who had just upgraded his kit to a C8 on a Atlas mount. He no longer needed his C6 on a Sirious mount (HEQ5) and kindly asked me if I wanted to buy it as he wanted to sell it to someone who was passionate about the hobby. I jumped on the occasion and bought it, with a bunch of accessories, for a mere 500€.

I was now in the game :)

I had spent years reading about astronomy in Ciel Et Espace magazine (amazing writers, beautiful magazine) and I could not wait for first light. As I needed to put some money aside for the scope, I had to wait until october, ho ! the agony. Finally the day arrived and, on the day after my 45th birthday, I traveled back from Paris to south of France to pickup my beautiful C6 and brought it back to my flat by train (not an easy task)

With the help of my 5 year old daughter I set up the scope in the living room feeling like a child on xmas.

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Of course, it rained for the next 3 weeks. First light finally happened at the end of october,  I set up my mount in my kitchen, looking through an open window... really bad conditions for a 1st light but I was hooked as soon as I pointed Saturn and the moon...

And then, everything went fast...

- got stellarium !!!
- spent dozens of hours in stellarium
- learned the difference between RA and DEC
- learned how to polar align
- Found a webcam in an old box and was fortunate enought that it was one of the most popular one (Toucam Pro)
- learned how to flash it to an SPC900NC (made an 'how to post' about it)

- learned how to use PIPP/AutoStakkert/Registax
- first capture of saturn
 

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I was hooked... so I spent even more time on the forum learning such things as
 

- balancing the scope

- FOV calculator
- drift alignement

- orthogonality errors
- cone error
- PEC / PAE

I made a friend on the forum, an English man and is lovely wife. I was invited to his house near Paris and spent 2 nights with amazing skies and our respective scopes. There I discovered:  

- jaffa cakes
- bangers and mash

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Back on the forum... dug even deeper, learning from OllyPenrice, JamesF, Gina, Alien 13, Zakalwe, Macavity, Psychobilly, and so many others on:

- guiding with PHD
- building a powerbox
- IR light
- size on sensor (not magnification for crying out loud) hi JamesF :)
- lengths of sub
- darks, bias and flats
- plate solving
- got my 1st EP case (!)

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And then, I sold my C6 OTA and got an 80ED (without losing any money... no profit though ;) to start a new journey... DSO imaging.

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- made my own EQdirect cable (a failure, please don't buy cheap chinese copies, buy from FLO or FTDI)

- modded my Canon 1000D like a big boy without fainting mid-way
 

Step 2

- learned how to use DSS

- took all my gear to the alps and imaged my first DSO (M31)

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So, here I am today, after a year, still hooked and full of memories. Of course this journey involved a lot of frustration and rage but, but, but also incredible moments where I stood there in awe, jaw dropped to the floor, amazed at all that beauty.

Although it is a technical hobby (and expensive) it does not have to be. I learned that you can take out a pair of binocular, a lounge chair and a warm blanket and still be amazed. That is the real beauty of it all... anyone can join, it is a community of like minded people who share a passion for the  beauty and the mysteries of our universe... To me, it is also a human experience. Astronomy is something I want to share with others. Funny enough, everytime I look at something amazing, be it the pleiades, Orion's nebula or M57, this monologue from Blade Runner comes to mind:

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost, in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

and then I chuckle in the dark.

I thank you all for taking me under your wings when I needed help. Hopefully I will be able to give back as I get more experienced.

My future projects are:

- learn Pixinsght

- get an ASI224MC for planetary and guiding
- get a MAK 180 to cover lunar and planetary imaging when in Paris ;)
- start my journey on the monochrome CCD and narrowband filters side. This one, very slowly... baby steps !

Long live SGL !

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Vox45

Vox45

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Glad you liked it. I wanted to take some time to thank everyone here. The amount of expertise, patience and dedication that I found on this forum is nothing short of amazing .... I'll be forever in debt as I saved so much time (and money!) just by reading posts here. The things I learned can't always be found in books, only experienced user can share that field experience and knowledge :)

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Tzitzis

Tzitzis

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I hope you achieve all these you want to and even more. SGL is a great forum  and I find myself wandering how many many things exactly I have learned here in the past 4 months...

I just lose track...

Keep rolling mate!

Cheers from Greece

Tzitzis

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barkis

barkis

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You certainly know how to express your feelings Vox.

That wonderful Account of you adventure into Astronomy is very Impressive, and does you great credit.

SGL thanks you very much, because what you have done and achieved, will be a great inspiration to others.

You mentioned a number of members who  have assisted you in your progress, and we thank them too,

because they are the life blood of the forum, and we will always need productive members.

We hope you continue to achieve much more success in your Imaging, and Observing.

Best Wishes to you and all your friends in France.

Ron.

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Vox45

Vox45

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'Vox45' - does your daughters wand make clouds disappear?

Ho I wished it would ! :)

The worst season is starting here in Paris... from october to january it's almost non stop clouds and rain... French people always ask me how I was able to live in montreal with winters in the -30° (only january really) I tell them that I'd rather have sub zeros temp with sunny blue skies than +5° with friggin clouds and rain :mad:

Montreal daily sunshine average for january 104hrs / Paris daily sunshine average for january 52hrs ... enough said ! ;)

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