Hello everypony!

I finally decided to write my first blog. Most of my future blogs will probably center around my hobby in astronomy. 

Ever since I was a little kid, I was always fascinated with space, particularly the planets. My favorite planet will always be Saturn. I started the hobby with a simple store bought refractor telescope at the age of 8. It worked great on the moon, but that was about it. The mount it came with wasn't capable of tracking and the optics weren't good either. I remember seeing colors around the Moon when looking thru it. Come to find out, that was chromatic aberration and it's inherent in many refractors, well, except for superachromats. (But who has the money for those? Lol.) I used that telescope for a couple years before I moved on  to other things.

I didn't return to the hobby till just a few years ago. Now that I was out of college and had a career, I had time and funds to return. I bought a small beginner reflector telescope with an equatorial mount and tracking motor. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was free of chromatic aberration and had tracking. After a while of observing, I was wanting to photograph what I saw. I checked some of the astronomy forums and bought a basic camera that slid into the focuser tube. Simply point the telescope and the planet shows up on the screen, right? I wish! Astronomy cameras have tiny chips and aligning a planet onto it is easier said than done. That bare bones setup got me started in planetary imaging, and I've been addicted to it ever since! I have made significant upgrades in the last two years. I now own 4 telescopes: Celestron C90, Aquila 90 refractor, Celestron C8, and Skywatcher 16 reflector. 

2018 was an awesome year! I spent a lot of nights imaging Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and even the ice giants: Uranus and Neptune. I will never forget the views of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, or Saturn's wonderful rings in the eyepiece of that 16in telescope!  Throughout 2018, I watched Venus go from nearly full to a thin crescent phase. Mars made it's closest approach in late July and was a wonderful sight in the eyepiece. My first image of Uranus with cloud details was also just a couple months ago. Towards the end of the year, I did some long exposure astrophotography of some of my favorite targets: Andromeda Galaxy, Pleaides, Horsehead and Orion's Nebula. 

Moving on to 2019, I plan to continue my hobby. This year will kickoff with a lunar eclipse at the end of the month, so I can't wait for that! This year will be a bit different, though. Jupiter and Saturn will be low in the sky and Mars is already far away from us, so I won't spend as much time imaging them as I did last year. I will likely focus on long exposure astrophotography in the spring and summer months. On the planetary side, I hope to upgrade my tracking mount with Go-to capability so I can image the elusive planet: Mercury. It's always close to the Sun, so the best time to image it is during the day when the planet is higher in the sky. Unlike Venus, Mercury isn't bright enough to be seen during the day with the naked eye, so I will need the Go-to capability to find it. I have imaged Mercury in the past, but only when it was low in the sky after sunset. The only detail visible was the phase of the planet. I can image from UV-a to Near IR, so unless shortwave or thermal infrared cameras become affordable, I probably won't be buying any new cameras this year. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this. If there are any questions or comments, go for it. I love talking about this stuff!