New Member: Johnny from Houston

[johnny-nguyen]

Hello All. I joined about two weeks ago, but making my intro today.

Moved to Houston from Southern California almost 20 years ago, but been back and forth these past couple of years for work. In light of recent global events, I'm hoping I don't have to head back there for a while. Ever since my first visit to the Griffith Park Planetarium, I was hooked on astronomy and cosmology. These days, I live on the North Side just south of Cypress Creek Parkway (FM1960) in a small subdivision under 8-9 Bortle Skies.

Recently bought a new truck to take an epic road trip up through Denver and down through Utah to grab any remaining bits of stuff from California and decided to make the most of this whole pandemic situation and invest in a nice beginning stargazing/astrophotography setup. I settled on the Sky-Watcher ED80 mm scope and decided to invest in a sufficiently heavy duty mount that is sufficiently future proof with the EQ6-R. I'll be shooting mostly on an older Canon 7D.

When I'm not reading blogs or watching vlogs on photographing deep sky objects, I enjoy fishing, cycling, and cooking (especially smoked meats).

Hoping to meet some of y'all soon and hoping to get a proper orientation at our Dark Site when time, weather, and cloud nights or clear skies permit.

[rene-gedaly]

Well, hello Johnny! You're in good company. A lot of our new members joined because they are turning to outdoor hobbies like astronomy during this time. Be sure to take the online orientation (log into the website and click START YOUR TRAINING on this page https://astronomyhouston.org/about/has-observatory). Next, check out this video https://www.astronomyhouston.org/tour-has-dark-site-and-observatory for an almost there overview of the dark site.

Fyi, I'm opening up the dark site hot beverage bar once a month near 3rd quarter moon in the fall/winter months of Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb. I set up in front of the Dob Shed and will have safety precautions in place. Check this out: https://www.astronomyhouston.org/events/1604795400/dob-shed-caf%C3%A9-show-your-mask. Again, to visit the dark site, you need to have taken online site orientation.