Well, well, well.? Its been at least 10 (15!?) years since I've poked my nose in around here, glad to see most of the riff raff are still active (and alive!).? I was recently lamenting the fact that I used to be an "amateur astronomer" and was wishing I could return to a once loved hobby when it occurred to me that I might actually be able to.? The "reasons" that made it near impossible to be an active observer have now grown up a bit and I think I can actually take some time for myself!!?
Though I sold off most of my gear many years ago, including my workhorse C-11, I had the foresight to at least hang on to my old reliable C-8, so I dragged it out of storage from deep under my basement stairs and started to examine it for damage.? Luckily, I had stored it with desiccant packs so the optics look like they did a decade ago.? I did, however, discover my first problem.? No eyepieces.? I was smart enough to keep the scope but had lacked the wisdom to keep at least one eyepiece.? This is when I sadly learned that Focus Scientific had gone out of business and I would need to navigate online telescope stores that were mostly new to me. Long story short, I picked up a new eyepiece online, which arrived in two days.? A good start, as far as I was concerned.? I was expecting the skies to cloud over for at least a month with such a purchase, but, to my great delight they did not.? In fact, the first light on the new eyepiece occurred that same day under a night a excellent seeing.? The moon was fantastic, and I managed find a few Messiers from memory.? However, I did run into my second problem.? Age.? My eyesight is not what it was years ago and although the views through my new eyepiece and old scope were as good as I recall them ever being, I could not read a star chart under red light to save my life!? I have been putting off a visit to the optometrist for far too many years because my arms are still long enough to allow me to read most fine print, but it'll be a return to astronomy that finally gets me in there to get it all sorted out.
So, all that to say "Hello"!? I plan to sink my teeth back into observing. I've renewed my Ottawa RASC membership and plan to contact the FLO administrator to ask for access to the site again (which seems to have grown since I last looked: two observing mounds!, Mike's old beat up 18in Starmaster??).? I'm hoping to pick up where I left off, chasing down the last half of the H400 and hopefully finding some opportunities to observe with other OAFs, including sidewalk events,? sometime soon.?
Hope to hear from some of you!!
Matt
