I live in the middle Western Canadian Prairie Provinces. The place where you have to be tough or stupid to live. Winter 1/2 the year wind for the rest. At just shy of 52 degrees North June Astronomy makes for a late short night, in December you can start shooting at Supper time to well past breakfast. My only real plus is the sky, Bortle 2 verging on Bortle 1 depending on who has shut off their yard-lights. Rolling hills of farmland makes for watchin' your dog run away for three days a possibility, at the same time allowing the wind (air motion above 50km/hr) to give us a pretty good lick.
Being rural we had a telescope as kids. It was seldomly used as there was always something to do early the next morning. Round two in astronomy started just over seven years ago. A 6" used reflector on a SLT goto mount found me. I believe the second time I used it the cell phone camera found it's way to the EP. Been a wild ride down the rabbit hole ever since. I am embarrassed to admit how many scopes and mounts I have, but for AP I use 2 cameras and two different scopes in various combinations.
My wife was kind enough to buy me a used SkyShed Pod with 3 bays. She may have been suffering from being alone in the house all night! Now I run everything except the dome rotation and opening/closing the observatory from the comfort and companionship of the couch. I feel for the people who have to set-up and tear down their gear every night. I timed the opening of the obs, To get going for a session including the walk to the obs and back takes 2 1/2 minutes, shut-down is less.
I am set up to do solar on a filter budget, but my passion is deep space objects including comets and asteroids. My Achilles heal is the computer. Eventually I get things working the way I want. The best lessons in life seem to not come from immediate success but the struggle of failing and figuring it out on your own. Be a giver, not a taker and you'll sail through life without much trouble.
Being rural we had a telescope as kids. It was seldomly used as there was always something to do early the next morning. Round two in astronomy started just over seven years ago. A 6" used reflector on a SLT goto mount found me. I believe the second time I used it the cell phone camera found it's way to the EP. Been a wild ride down the rabbit hole ever since. I am embarrassed to admit how many scopes and mounts I have, but for AP I use 2 cameras and two different scopes in various combinations.
My wife was kind enough to buy me a used SkyShed Pod with 3 bays. She may have been suffering from being alone in the house all night! Now I run everything except the dome rotation and opening/closing the observatory from the comfort and companionship of the couch. I feel for the people who have to set-up and tear down their gear every night. I timed the opening of the obs, To get going for a session including the walk to the obs and back takes 2 1/2 minutes, shut-down is less.
I am set up to do solar on a filter budget, but my passion is deep space objects including comets and asteroids. My Achilles heal is the computer. Eventually I get things working the way I want. The best lessons in life seem to not come from immediate success but the struggle of failing and figuring it out on your own. Be a giver, not a taker and you'll sail through life without much trouble.