Greetings from a rather damp Belfast.

[hal2000]

Hi everyone, it's good to be here. I see there are plenty of old friends around, hello to you all. My name is Stevie, and I have been interested in astronomy for as long as I can remember, all the way back to the moon landings. I am mainly interested in deep sky observing, particularly double stars and clusters, although I also enjoy hunting down obscure galaxies.
I manage to get out observing as regularly as the weather permits, and use mainly a 12" Meade Lightbridge and a Celestron C6-SGT. Most of my observing nowadays is done at Bragan Mountain in Monaghan, and, to a lesser extent, at Killylane reservoir in County Antrim, near Larne. Unfortunately, the light pollution at Killylane is now quite bad. My skies at home are so badly light-polluted that I rarely bother observing there. Hopefully some of you may be able to come down to Monaghan some time, it is a superb site, with a 360 degree panorama and quite dark skies. I enjoy writing up observing reports, and I will put a few up in the astronomy forum for your comments and, hopefully, enjoyment.
One thing I will not be posting are photographs, I am generally regarded as being the world's worst photographer, and my daughter flatly refuses to let me near her Nikon D40. Although I have to say, after watching John McConnell taking images of Comet Hartley at Bragan a couple of weeks ago, I am now seriously considering giving it a go. Hi John, and thanks for the masterclass.
Catch you all soon.

Stevie

[Paul]

Welcome Stevie, good to have you here. Yes, even in our relatively sparsely populated Province, light pollution is a big problem for us. I used to go to Killylane regularly but as you say, the LP there has got worse over the years. I'd certainly be interested in exploring your site at Bragan at some stage.

I do a good line is astrophotography basics if you decide to give it a go

Cheers,

Paul.

[rjgjr]

Hi Stevie,
Glad to have you on board. You'll find that we all dabble a little bit in everything around here, and I bet your general photography isn't as bad as you say. Why don't you post a few and let us help you decide. Welcome!

[martinastro]

Hi Stevie - fantastic to have you on the forum, we have met before many times during various astro meetings and late night observing sessions. It's great to have a visual observer of your skill level on here. As for the photography I'm sure you are just being too hard on yourself or perhaps a perfectionist Enjoy your time.

[paulster78]

A warm welcome Stevie, looking forward to hearing about your observing sessions and whatever else you decide to post up here. 

[John9929]

Hi Stevie,

A very warm welcome to you, great to have someone of your calibar on the forum, a true visual observer! I look forward to reading more of yur fantastic reports, and if I can help in any way re the astrophotography you only have to shout. Perhaps we can have another "masterclass" soon at Bragan it's a great site, though I still have to see it in all it's glory. Enjoy yourself on here with a great bunch of guy's!

[Big Dipper]

Belated welcome Stevie & great to see you here. As Martin says, delighted to have someone who's DSO knowledge is certainly very substantial & observing session reports I always enjoy reading.

[DaveH64]

Hi Stevie and welcome, I'm sure you will find this an interesting and friendly place to be.

[JohnC]

Welocome Stevie.  Missed this too. I Need to eel an eye on this thread. You can't be  any worse than me with astro. photos .So bad I don't do them.