ArcticPhoenix

I started with astronomy fairly young by using my father's field binoculars to figure out what those "sparkly things up there" were. I never really took off so to speak until very recently with a department store refractor that promised me "Front Row Seats to the Heavens!!! 650x! Amazing!" (oh the horrors!). Believe it or not, it hooked me on the hobby. I remember the first time I took it to a little field out in the country and I decided to point it at the only star that night that wasn't twinkling. I remember this night well because I had some delusions of being the first to discover untwinkling stars and such nonsense as that. I was actually a little disapointed when the untwinkling star I had FINALLY managed to bring into the FOV happened to be Saturn. I had no idea what the "little telescope" on the side was for then. So I did a little research on the subject and found out that I had been duped! 650x out of a 2 inch refractor!? Theoretically maybe, but definetly not useable. I was still quite taken with the views i got of Saturn and the moon. I did a little more research and finally found out what I wanted out of the hobby and finally decided on an 8" SCT from Celestron. The first night I had with that monster I, of course, looked at Saturn (it took much less time this go-around). I knew better than to think i was going to see something like out of a magazine and I thought what I had seen before was pretty spectacular, I certainly didn't think that this fancy new scope I had dropped a stack on was going to be much better. I was very, very wrong. I must have looked at Saturn for an hour and a half that first night before rain clouds encroached on my observing and I had to pack it up. I stayed up the rest of that night hoping for a break in the clouds to go and look at Saturn again. I didn't get another chance that night but I knew I had found my hobby. Now that I've come to the realization of the fact that there are other wonderful things to look at that are not planets out there in the "aether" I'm hooked for good now. When I saw my first nebula in Orion I was amazed. When I first realized I was looking at a galaxy (albeit very faint), I was amazed. When I saw my first star clusters I was again amazed. Now that I'm over my initial "Oh wow, look at that/those/whatever that is!" stage, I want to learn more about the hobby. I want to be the guy on my block to go to with astronomy questions. I'm glad for places like this where I can just sit back, absorb, and occasionally inject a question or two in the discussion. Thanks for the opprotunity to learn!