Hi All,
Introducing my wife Lisa, my daughter Lucy (8) and myself Grahame.
We came along to the introduction to Astronomy course at NLO on Sat 18th.

Hands up another one for the Brian Cox effect.
Although saying that Lisa has always had a "passing" interest in the stars.
We went to the planetarium in Bristol this time last year and found it very interesting.
And 4 weeks later we were on holiday in South Africa, hence the username, I was born in Cape Town.
We also went to the Cape Town Planetarium. We had a good 1/2 hour chat after the "show" with the operator.
He was very kind and spent a good deal of time showing Lucy what the different stars that could and could not be seen between the Northen and Southern skies.
He gave us star charts for the time we were in SA, we spent a few nights looking up and enjoyed the experience.

So roll onto this year and Mr Cox sparks Lisa's interest again, I think it was an interest in Astronomy and not the man himself :-)

After the shows aired I started the process of googling for info on forums / Telescopes, like you do :-)
found stargazers lounge / NLO and FLO, and started to get infomration overload.

Roll forward to last week and I contacted Kate to book places on the course for the 18th.
I had also been hassling James at FLO. He was very informative and listened to what we as a family wanted to get from the hobby , the need for portability and the like. I had narrowed my choice of scope to a SCT. I was goin to go for a Celestron 127Mak, but ended up getting a Celestron 8SE, how did that happen :-)
I do a lot of motorsport photography and have been down the road of the buying the lower price lenses and then finding myself upgrading at a later stage.
With that in mind I thought it best to jump in at the 8SE stage, a good starting point, which fits our family needs well. I sold one of my L glass lenses to part fund the 8SE. Went from 16-35mm lens to a 2000mm one.

Well that's enough waffle.

May I take this opportunity to thank all the speakers on the course on Saturday, it was a very good introduction for us.
Special thanks to Kate and Mac for making us feel very welcome. Lucy loved the kids pack that Kate supplied.
Mac, I think you have a new best astronomy friend, we really appreciate the time you spent taking Lucy through the Saturn "wobble" on Stellarium. And also for the loan of the hoody in the evening. She looked like the Michellin man when she had finished. She had 2 of her own coats, my gloves and hat and then Mac's hoody as well.

We got home to Plymouth at about 10.30PM, a long day but well worth it.
As it was still clear when we got home, we had a quick go on the 8SE. Then to bed at midnight, and up again at 6AM to have a look at Saturn :-) I think the bug has bitten :-) It was only myself at 6 this morning though, the remainder of the family were in the land of nod.

We are going out the back again in a bit. After seeing the ISS last night at NLO, we went out tonight to watch the pass. Lucy was very excited, we saw it for much longer than expected.

Once again thanks to all at NLO for a most warm welcome. Time permitting we will back back.

Cheers,

Grahame, Lisa and Lucy.

PS - I managed to get one of the Philips SPC880 webcam kits that came into stock briefly at Telescope House last week.

I also ordered the Revelation lens kit as a starter set.
It's a slippery slope, although at my wife is the one who started this ball rolling.
She wanted a "closer" look of Saturn, "OK dear well I'll get online and place an order".

Welcome to the forum Grahame! You will indeed get hooked on the hobby and if you are patient it will be rewarding for all of you! I look forward to meeting you all at the NLO sometime.

Hi Graham, Lisa and Lucy, not met you yet but I see you have already circume to 'Aperture feaver'!

Welcome to the Forum

Hope to meet you soon
Regards
Pete

Welcome Grahame, Lisa, Lucy
I am glad you had a great time.

Rob