Longtime Lurker from Texas

[hyak]

I've been lurking on this forum since 2014, and I'm surprised no one has ousted me yet. 😀

I live in Bertram, TX. It's a rural area about an hour Northwest of Austin, if anyone is familiar with the area. The content in this forum has been incredibly useful over the past several years, I search for information and read through post almost daily. I figured it was time to stop lurking and finally introduce myself. 

I'll share one of my most memorable newbie moments. I was at our club's dark sky site six years ago with a shiny new Orion XT12i. It was late December and unusually cold for Texas - cold enough that only one other person was on the observing field. I fiddled with the XT12i for two hours and still couldn't get it to align, I was in over my head. I hadn't yet learned the constellations and sat there cold and defeated. The other person on the field walked over and introduced himself. He must have noticed that I was struggling. Jim gave me a few pointers on how to use the telescope manually and showed me how to find M42. That was my first view of the Great Orion Nebula and I was blown away. Jim showed me how to find a few other objects, but I kept going back to M42. 

I might have given up the hobby if it weren't for Jim. After that night I vowed to learn the night sky and not rely solely on computers. 

I recently started imaging and am once again in over my head, so I figured it was time to stop lurking and start interacting with folks. 

Steven

 

[JeremyS]

Welcome Steven, @hyak. I am a regular visitor to Houston and was in Austin last November for the transit of Mercury (which was clouded out!).

[hyak]

19 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Welcome Steven, @hyak. I am a regular visitor to Houston and was in Austin last November for the transit of Mercury (which was clouded out!).

Were you able to attend the Apollo 50th celebration at Johnson Space Center last year? 

[Mr Spock]

Hi Steven, welcome to SGL 

[Tommohawk]

Hi and welcome to SGL. I'm sure you'll get lots of help here with your imaging queries. I certainly have!

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[banjaxed]

Hi Steven, welcome to SGL.

[daemon]

Welcome to the dark side! 😉

[sloz1664]

Hi Steven and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

[Floater]

Welcome. You’re obviously having fun getting ‘in over your head’. Hope you have lots more fun. 🙂

[hyak]

38 minutes ago, daemon said:

Welcome to the dark side! 😉

Do you guys have cookies? I was told the dark side would have cookies, that's why I'm here. 

[daemon]

34 minutes ago, hyak said:

Do you guys have cookies? I was told the dark side would have cookies, that's why I'm here. 

I think you need to "accept cookies" and my cookies are simply unacceptable!! 😝

[Tenor Viol]

Hi, welcome. I bake cakes - will that do?

I'm a newcomer to imaging, but something I always encourage beginner adult learner musicians to do is to join a community group - it helps in so many ways. You can learn from the more experienced, you discover your problems are not unique and others have been there and can offer help and support. 

[JRM]

Hi Steven, 

Welcome to the lounge, love the story about M42, exactly what hooked me in, found it by accident, did not know what I was doing and just free roaming with my 4.5" eq mount, it was the trapezium that puzzled me at the time, if I remember right I described it as a nest of eggs then everyone told me what it was, a totally awesome site, looked even better in the 10" once I got it done, a treasure for sure, I can't wait to see it in the 20".

[Sunshine]

Welcome to the Lounge, Steven, I think we were all lurkers before we finally joined up, nice story about M42 BTW.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Sunshine

[cletrac1922]

Steve

Welcome from across the ditch, Goldcoast, Australia

Sounds like you are in good hands with your club

Have attached a couple of pics of my 10" Dob, and my ED80 on a EQ5pro mount taken at club my club outings

The Dob pic, was taken at Saturn In The Park, public viewing night, and the ED80 club solar viewing day

John

 

[toshapetriji]

Hi Steven, welcome to SGL

[PeterCPC]

Hello Steven and welcome.

Peter

[tony210]

Welcome Steven- time to stop lurking - bw Tony.

[hyak]

12 hours ago, cletrac1922 said:

Steve

Welcome from across the ditch, Goldcoast, Australia

Sounds like you are in good hands with your club

Have attached a couple of pics of my 10" Dob, and my ED80 on a EQ5pro mount taken at club my club outings

The Dob pic, was taken at Saturn In The Park, public viewing night, and the ED80 club solar viewing day

John

 

Thanks for posting, I love seeing outreach photos. Outreach is one of the things I miss most right now, and there's no telling when we'll be able to start things up again. The attached photos is from one of our last star parties held at Pedernales State Park. The monument in the center is an obelisk with a Polaris spotter on top. 

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Steven, welcome. 

[Ant]

Welcome to SGL Steven.

I have a fondness of Texas, have some astro friends there. I spent three weeks in Houston / Davis Mountains 30 years ago (damn thats a long time ago).

Attended the TSP  with some member of the Houston and Fort Bend Astro societies. Also observed from the Mcdonald Observatory. 

That was really good fun. 

Stay safe

Ant

[cletrac1922]

11 hours ago, hyak said:

Thanks for posting, I love seeing outreach photos. Outreach is one of the things I miss most right now, and there's no telling when we'll be able to start things up again. The attached photos is from one of our last star parties held at Pedernales State Park. The monument in the center is an obelisk with a Polaris spotter on top. 

@hyak

Thank you very much for sharing your pic of your moment where you are for all of us

Two years ago was in India, and visited a place called Jantra Mantra, which is located in Jaipur

The site was built over 400 years ago, and series of astronomical instruments

There is a sun dial there, which is 62 feet tall, and faces towards Polaris, and even today is accurate to within 2 seconds

The face of the sundial is done in marble etchings

Have attached pics taken of the sundial, and link to the site

The third pic is a different sundial, which is double sided, and also is angled, and you use which side when the sun is either over the Tropic of Cancer, or Tropic of Capricorn

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1338/

John

 

 

 

[ronl]

Hello Steven, and welcome to the community, hope you enjoy your time here in SGL,

see you around the forums.

Clear Sky's.

[JeremyS]

On 15/07/2020 at 17:28, hyak said:

Were you able to attend the Apollo 50th celebration at Johnson Space Center last year? 

Wasn't able to get to that, but I did get to the 50th anniversary exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington DC 👍