NEW MEMBER: Andrew in Spring Branch

[andrew-dugas]

Howdy All,

I have always been a scientist at heart, even though I am a Classical Musician turned Yoga Instructor.
My wife and I began waking up at 4:30am last month and we kept having the conversation, "What star is that? Is that Venus? Mars?"
She then downloaded SkySafari and we stood, slack-jawed as we waved our smart phones around to see what all these dots were and...
Well it turned out to be Jupiter!

She had a birthday, so I purchased (like so many people in quarantine it seems) a 3.5" catadioptric and, with some bug spray on, for the first time in my life looked through a telescope.
After many minutes of trying to orient it in Houston's night, I gave up and whipped it around to some bright dots in the sky. I am proud to be among those of you that have had that moment of true awe when Jupiter slapped into view. And I will not lie and say I did not tear up at the sight of the rings of Saturn.

I have since upgraded and am planning around our hectic schedule to make it out to the Columbus site in the coming weeks with my Texas 45 list in hand.

Wish we could meet in person, but soon enough I will get to greet this neat community face to face.

Till Then,
Andrew Dugas

[rene-gedaly]

Andrew, welcome, welcome! Great story, and as you guessed, it's not an uncommon one, even the musician part, but you are the first yoga instructor Btw, I'm the HAS Texas 45 author so please feel free to ask me for pointers on finding the more splendid objects. Be sure to log sightings of Jupiter and Saturn at the site. And if you stay late or overnight, you can catch Mars and Venus, too.