I am back

[TonyD]

Hello All,

It has been about five years (probably more), but I am back.

Long story - various reasons (with a serious bout of eye trouble (anyone had macular holes or vitreo macular traction?) why I went into hibernation - but hibernation is the right term.  No astro equipment acquired or dumped.  It is all as it was...

Two TAL 100s, a TAL wooden GEM mount,  a TAL-2M with working original motor, a TAL Alcor, a  Skywatcher 80 ED, an HEQ5, a Skywatcher AZ3 mount and a little portable Skywatcher 705. Plus an assortment of odds and ends, for astrophotography.

I hope to be able to learn (boy did I learn so much before) and share my experiences once again.

If you remember me from before, please say "hello"!

Glad to be back.

Mike

[swag72]

Hi Mike...... always great to see someone returning after a hiatus...... good thing that you kept everything

Look forward to seeing you around and welcome back

[Mr Spock]

Hi Mike, welcome back

[Ruud]

Pleasure to meet you, Mike.

[avtaram]

Hi Mike, welcome back.

Avtar

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome back.

[nightfisher]

Mike, of course i remember you well and often wondered where you went, a warm welcome back

[ronl]

Hello and welcome back, see you around the forums.

Clear Sky's.

[Floater]

Welcome back from a relative newcomer. Hope you hang around and enjoy the forum again.

[RiponJas]

Hello from another newcomer. 

[sloz1664]

Hi Mike nice to see you back on the Lounge again and furthermore I'm glad you still have your TAL's.

Steve 

[cletrac1922]

Mike

Welcome back from another newbie from  land down under

John

[Chris]

Hi Mike, I think I remember your avatar, welcome back  

[Blazar]

Oh yes....Good to have you back  

[Demonperformer]

Hi, Mike, and welcome back to SGL.

Sometimes a sabbatical is a good thing if you come back refreshed and 'ready to go' ...

[rwilkey]

Hi Mike, a warm welcome back from me too!

[F15Rules]

Hello Mike,

Welcome back to SGL and I hope you're eye problems are now fixed.

Clear skies,

Dave

[Saganite]

Hi Mike, welcome back to SGL.

Steve

[AndyH]

Great to hear from you again, Mike

 You were missed!

 

Cheers, Andy

[TonyD]

Thanks everyone for replying and making me feel back at home and amongst friends.

I am writing this from a hotel in Bremen, Germany.  We are driving over to the UK from Norway.  No more ferries from Scandinavia (not even Denmark).  I guess the proliferation of cheap flights and rental car deals slowly killed off the viability of the ferry services, so when the ferries had to be refitted and upgraded, the money was not available to upgrade them to current emission standards.

So tomorrow off to Dunkirk and then evacuating to Dover.  From there, a drive up to Malvern where we are staying for the next three weeks.  Four days on the Pembrokeshire coast, and three days up in Derbyshire around Baslow.

Hopefully picking up a Celestron Omni XLT 127 SCT with CG4 mount that will reside in the UK.  Also a chance of grabbing a pair of Meade Astro 15x70 bins.   My eye condition needs I need the higher light gathering capacity and magnification, so I hope they do the job.

I have my TAL eyepieces with me: 6.3 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm, 25 mm and 42 mm, together with 2x and 3x barlows.

Looking forward to some dark skies in the Malvern Hills.

Then back to Norway where finally there will be some night time after several months - at my latitude it never really gets to beyond nautical twilight.

Although I have had some terrific views of a very red setting Moon over the last few nights.  And a bit of Jupiter.  And Mars.  And, of course, Saturn.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

[des anderson]

A warm welcome from Essex. Des

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Mike, welcome. 

[kosmoplan]

Welcome back Mike.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire