Starfisher Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi All ,i'm Jan(for the dutch speaking) / (Ian/john for english speaking) B. I live in a small town called aalst ( same as a big town 130clicks from here).I'am involved since i was an 11 yo kid into astronomy. i first had some binoculair experience and a starchart. than i discovred on the addict my father's 2 old Viking telescopes a 114mm/900 reflector and a 65mm/... refractor. the first years i could't do much alone with it because i was small and didn't have a clue how to align the finderscope,... without help of my father ( call me stupid ) . but than i started buying secondhand books , making more discoveries on the addict and in no time i was able to aling the finderscope myself , finding the moon and the planets and also some doublestars , later on my father learned me where to find the M42 , m45 and that was all i could find for 1.5years or so.than i joined a youth-club for amateur astronomers called JVS Descartes where i learned more about astronomy ( and off-topics) , refining my skills of constellation recognition and learn a term 'starhopping'. i did also get chances to look in various telescopes , the biggest a 10" which was huge ( talking about late 90's over here) .It really was my second home and when i went 17 i bought the awsome Firstscope 80 EQ WA which was really giving me an edge. first of all i hadn't to deal anymore with 35yo 0.96" eypieces with a fov of 0.2° but some (in that time for me) fance 1.25" ep of 25mm which gave me a 2.5° (or something like that) view. starhopping and finding messier was never so easy .From just being a member i evolved a year later to be a full-staff member and so my scope upgrade followed the year after. an 8" dobson of skywatcher which was a real new kid around the block around the years 2000's (did buy mine in 2003). With the experience build up this light-canon was my favorite weapon of choice , certainly because i gained now an 2" ep as well. also the fact it was my first year serving the armed forces, which gave me more financial boost for my n°1 hobby did had a certain role. i think i never bought so much ep's , filters in such a short time. i now really was a complete messier finder , i could show the youngest members in less than 10 mins over 15 different messiers without even using my finderscope! it were these days i also only had sympathy for dobsons , eq's and goto's were for losers ( but that view would radical changed over the years) .so times past and when i did my last year in the youth-club i selled the 8" dobsie to buy an 10" on an heq-5 and triying out the meade DSI which were my first babysteps in AP , i also had an etx 105 goto that time. it all didn't work out so well , i had no auto-guider and the time i wanted to invest more i suffered a car-crash which financial ruined me. so for many 3 years i did only some visiual.after my first tour Afghanistan , i had more money , some wiser insights and was so pleased with the visual work.certainly after showing in my etx the moon and planets to afghan kids and elders, so i bought me an 14" dobsie. for 5 years this was my bud and still is for visual work. i did lots of observations, gave demonstrations on astro-themed evenings which were likely inspiring for other people which joined the astronomy adventure as well. meanwhile i had my second tour afghanistan done as well ( still active btw in the armed forces ).so the AP was in hibernation: untill last years where some savings came free. which i didn't have to spend on my house ( a bit on the kids ofc ) . so i start researching visited many websites to see what people used, bought me some books,... . till the day of gear-buying came: i ended up with an esprit150ED APO on an az-eq6-gt and a secondhand atik 383L mono with eqquiped fw. i started to learn AP now like i had the joy when i bought my firstscope 80eq wa. but it didn't last long. because of constructional-financial trouble i had to sell the esprit150 and the ccd. i now had to use my firstcope 80EQ on the az-eq6-gt mount and an old nikon D50(which is half broken)Luckly for me i kept the mount and after recovering my loss , is there new hope .i saved some bit again to buy me an Skywatcher BK130PDS ( thanks to the imaging with 130PDS topic on this site)which will be a lightwight on my mount. and luck strikes twice because i also had some saving over to buy me next month(fingers crossed) an unmodded canon 1200D.in the following year i hope to expand my gear and filling my astrobin-account up with some better pictures than now.So, this is me. Happy to be here.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtreemchaos Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 hi Jan and welcome from charl in south wales uk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Lloyd Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi Jan, you've had some good adventures...some not so good. Welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Spock Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi Jan, welcome to SGL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterCPC Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hello and welcome.Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfisher Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 thanks all!yeah having ups and downs but that is what our life makes interesting (if you put it all in perspective) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seo Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi Jan, welcome to SGL ! Enjoy the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swag72 Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi Jan and welcome to SGL - You're amongst good people on the forum who will be pleased to help however they can Look forward to seeing you around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purplehayze104 Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi Jangood to have you with us an welcome to SGLclear skiesjohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfisher Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 thanks a lot !ofcourse i will try to help out wherever i can .i love surfing around here on the forums and reading . it was a good choice to get a bit more active involved on this site.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.h.f.wilkinson Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Welcome to SGL Jan. It's a great place for novice and experienced astronomer (like yourself) alike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PapaEmeritusIII Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi JanWelcome to SGL, have fun and Clear Skies.Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laudropb Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfisher Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 really nice to be welcomed by so many people .think i gonna really like it here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesM Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hi Jan and welcome to the forumClear skies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizibilder Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Hello Jan and welcome to SGL!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charon Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Welcome aboard Jan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michigander Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Welcome to SGL, Jan!Dana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Hoi Jan, welkom en veel plezier in de Lounge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfisher Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 thnx again all.and : hoi Ruud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triton1 Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Hi there and welcome to SGL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Presland Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glowjet Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 Hi Jan and welcome to SGL, shame you had to sell the 150 APO Espirit that would have been a nice refractor for observing. Still you can hope that times ahead will improve, so that you can once again indulge yourself in some expensive equipment, enjoy the forum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfisher Posted October 29, 2015 Author Share Posted October 29, 2015 thanks again!@ Glowjet : i haven't been long idle. i used for 2 nights my old scope and camera. But... today i gought me a unmodded Canon 1200D and one of the next days my skywatcher 130PDS arrives at my scopeseller along with a dewshield, bathinov-mask , clip lps-filter for the camera . and from than it is a bit by bit building up the rest of the gear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger111 Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 Greetings from Maldon, Essex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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