Celestron8

[celestron8]

Wonder if old AndyMac remembers me ;D ?? Almost 9 yrs ago.......... , been along time . Been quite awhile since i have heard from you AndyMac ! Thank goodness i still have your website bookmarked !

[Andy Mac]

Jul 8, 2008 4:21:36 GMT celestron8 said:

Wonder if old AndyMac remembers me

A most definite 'yes' to both points there Ron! Yes, I feel old - and yes, of course I remember you. Both you and Davidr (then, from astronomy.com forums) were key figures in inspiring me at the start in this nutty hobby of astro imaging. I still have your site bookmarked BTW.

I am a member of Our Dark Skies but don't go there as often as I should - especially as I am a subscriber. I did Vincent (VydorScope) an article on my new AstroTrac camera platform (I ended up selling my 11" SCT last year, mainly on health grounds) and got this easy to use camera tracker instead. The article was meant for his Dark Sky Insight magazine - but this seems to have folded now.

I hate to say it, but I also finally made the switch from film to digital at the start of this year. I now own a modified Canon 350D and enjoy taking the odd widefield vista from time to time. I've posted my latest shot from last week below. The AstroTrac is not cheap - but is is a delight to use - very light and user friendly.

A word about this forum. Firstly I apologise for the garish colours. As you can see, I would never make a successful designer! ;D Earlier this year, we thought that the original Spacetalk had gone for good after it had been down for several weeks and I had been unable to contact its owner, habu, who lives in Germany. I therefore set up this 'replacement' so that we would not entirely lose our Spacetalk 'community' (i.e. what's left of it)! Then, out of the blue, habu replied to an earlier e-mail of mine and put his forum back online. Since then, it has been down several times, so I use this new version as a backup and to post any progress reports on the original site.

Habu is going to move his site to a new server. I therefore anticipate it being down for a longish time, as habu's time is pretty limited. Be great to see some of your most recent work, if you wish to post it here, Ron.

My main forum (where I am an administrator) is called Astro-Chat. This has to be the most friendly, flame-free and good humoured site that I have ever belonged to. Although primarily a UK site, we have members from all parts of the globe. Do please check it out if you have time. If you wish to join, I would be delighted to see you there.

Anyway, great to hear from you again. As stated earlier, here is my latest shot (IC1318 area in Cygnus with a 135mm lens & ten, five minute-each exposures with a LPR and Halpha filter in place).


A false Ha colour version created using Noel Carboni's Astro Tools:

[celestron8]

Well........ Hello Andy !! Been along time now since i last heard from you . I don't post much anymore on ODS for personal reasons . Your a die-hard film man ;D ! I miss film alot and could still use it but hard to get anymore a good film and local places no longer develope . They send it off for a couple weeks and no guarantee what they will do to it . I Still use a Rebell 300D unmod. but last couple yrs i haven't done much shooting or stargazing . Some different reasons for that too . Mostly weather tho . Been thinking of selling all my rigs and equip and retiring but i still miss a good night of strictly observing without imaging ;D . Got alot of LP here now too . Midland is really growing and so is the LP !! Well i like your picts you posted here . Nice going with that new rig you got . Little too much for my pocket book for now . What i really miss is the good ole days way back at A.Com , i'm still a member there but so many newbies and i never get a reply on anything so i mainly just read and few comments . I'm getting a little old mysef Andy . Not really too much age wise but physically I really feel it at times . Not strong like i use to be . Usr to carry the scope out every night and setup and stargazing in an hour but now it's more like several hours . Well nough chit-chat altho i could go on for hours but got some chores to do . I still can't remember what time it is where you live but as i'm writing it's 16:43pm CST , 07-08-08 . I think i'm -6 hrs UT time but never really understood that much either . Anyway good talking to you and catch you later ;D !!