Greetings

[MrFreeze]

Hello there.

Time to introduce myself I guess. I'm hardly a newcomer to astronomy - I was introduced to it when I was bought the "Observer's Book of Astronomy" back in 1967 as a Christmas present by my godfather. I used a pair of 8 X 30 binoculars (which I still have), and was bought a Tasco newtonian 120mm? reflector (long gone) by my parents one Christmas. I studied Astrophysics at university, and was secretary of the Sussex University Astronomy Society. After leaving university I moved to north London and didn't have a chance to do any astronomy whilst living in various rented accomodation. Eventually moved out of London and bought a house, but didn't do much astronomy as there is so much light pollution, and money was tight, so just persevered with the Tasco (optics not bad, but the mount was awfull).

I married my wife in the Philippines and lived there for a while which was interesting - clear skies, but streetlights totally unscreened. In 2012 we decided to get a better scope so bought a Skywatcher Evostar-90, supplemented in 2018 by a Skywatcher Explorer 150PL secondhand, and this last week by an Orion Apex-127. (Probably why the weather has turned)

I would like to thank Astro Baby for her collimation instructions, without which I would never have managed to re-collimate the newtonian. Everyone else on here stresses how important collimation is, but no one else tells you how to do it.

Finally - are there any instructions anywhere for this website - I find it almost totally baffling - 'likes' 'following' -seems like facebook, and I never could figure that out.

Clear skies

David

[PeterCPC]

Hello David and welcome.

Peter

[Floater]

Welcome. I hope you have lots of fun with the hobby ‘somewhere cold’. 🙂

(An easy guess that you are no longer in the Philippines!)

[MrFreeze]

True enough, but the cold is due to my employment - I work at about -18C as warehouse manager for a frozen food company. And I hate the cold!

David

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome aboard SGL David. Good to have you with us.

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL 

[banjaxed]

Hi David, welcome to SGL.

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[sloz1664]

Hi David and a very warm welcome to the Lounge 

Steve

[Greymouser]

Hello and a warm welcome from damp Cheshire. I am now imagining you working at an Iceland warehouse and even living in there! No good, but at least you will not go hungry, as long as you don't mind sucking the food thawed, then nibbling the mush... 

As for guides to the forum, I think they are here, if you look, but forget. Any specific questions will soon be answered. Likes etc. are not important, would be better disregarded, ( as should Facebook, ) but at least they allow you to show you have noted a post, which saves an actual response! ( I guess I can tend to laziness... ) Just give things a try and click on them, see what happens!

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi David, welcome. 

[toshapetriji]

Hi David, welcome to SGL. Regarding instructions for the site, just have a click around and explore it will become clear very quickly.

[Mr Spock]

Hi David, welcome to SGL 

[MrFreeze]

One thing that hasn't become clear at all to me is the site settings. As I said earlier, I don't do facebook, but it's all about 'following' and the like in facebookese (I'm not even sure what is meant by 'following'). And how do notifications work - on any other site I would get an email when someone responds to something I posted - I can't find the setting to enable that here at all - is it not supported without the 'get a daily summary of everything new'.

David

[johninderby]

Click on your user name in upper right hand of the screen.

Then click on Account Settings

Then click on Notification Settings  and then you can set your following and notification settings.

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by johninderby

[MrFreeze]

I did all that John, and I have the 'only send one email until I next visit' selected, but I still don't get emails. Does this forum software not support them? Or is it dependent on the 'send me news' setting?

David

[globular]

If you scroll a bit further down in the Notification Settings area you'll see each type of "thing" and whether you want to be "notified" (i.e. get a browser notification) or "email".
I suspect you need to tick a few "email" buttons for the "things" you want to be told about.

As you can see, I prefer notifications over emails - but you can customise your setting to your preferences.
 

Edited September 28, 2020 by globular

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Peter in Bedfordshire 🙂

[MrFreeze]

23 hours ago, globular said:

If you scroll a bit further down in the Notification Settings area you'll see each type of "thing" and whether you want to be "notified" (i.e. get a browser notification) or "email".
I suspect you need to tick a few "email" buttons for the "things" you want to be told about.

 

As you can see, I prefer notifications over emails - but you can customise your setting to your preferences.
 

Thanks for that, but emails were already selected in that section, and the news thingy now selected, but still no emails. Ho hum - looks like you have to have a daily summary, weekly summary or no emails at all.

David