by Kelly Haviland
This is my first post to this list. I am really new to Astronomy (3 weeks or so) but its been great so far so I thought I would share a little about my experience. I've been interested in Astronomy for as long as I can remember but for one reason or another have never had a telescope or even looked through one. A couple of months ago, I decided to take my 5 & 9 year old sons to a star party at Houge Park. It was great and I was hooked. Everyone was very friendly and we got to try out a bunch of different scopes. I then decided I wanted to buy a telescope. I spent a few weeks debating over what I wanted and more importantly for my wife, how much I was going to spend. I decided to start small so I purchased a Stellarvue 80mm short tube refractor and an equatorial mount.
I have been out observing 6 times so far. Given that I was a total novice when I started and was unable to identify more than the Big Dipper and Polaris it was a slow start. Prior to last night I had only found the moon, Venus, a couple of double stars and 3 Messier objects. I was still happy though because I was starting to learn the constellations and both my boys were interested and were learning new things as well.
I have discovered that the best way to learn is to attend star parties and rub shoulders with the rest of you folks. I am amazed at the knowledge and experience of some of the folks I've run into. Last night at Foothills Park in Palo Alto, I ran into a guy named George and his friend Milt (I think) from Arizona. George was great. He pointed out a bunch of new stuff for me and helped confirm my finds once I had something. This was very helpful because as a newbie you sometimes aren't sure that what you found is what you were trying to find. :-) As the night progressed I was able to find a lot of new objects including M8, M22, M28, M20, M21, etc. I won't go into all the details here but I have been trying to keep a log of my observations on my web site if you are interested in reading more about my experience (havitek.com/astro/log.html).
Anyway I just want to thank George and others of you like him who are willing to help out us new guys. There have been many of you who have helped me out so far (sorry I don't remember all of your names) and many more who have been friendly and offered encouragement. I think this speaks volumes for Astronomy as a great hobby.