My name is Andy and I've just discovered this forum thanks to Paul who signed up to my main astro site of
Astro-Chat. I very much like the layout of this forum and all three areas covered here (i.e. astronomy, weather and photography) are of great interest to me.
I recognise a few names on here - Darkside (ady), Les and Brianb from the Sky at Night - and Martinastro from Unbelievable Astronomy (which I think is now defunct?)
Like Paul, I grew up with film & was in to SLR daytime photography in the 80's in a big way. I combined this interest with astronomy in the early 90's & took up astro imaging and for 15 years, I was the proud owner of a Celestron Ultima 11" SCT & ST4 autoguider. Alas, mainly on health grounds, I sold up in early 2007.
Last year I bought an AstroTrac which I find a joy to use. Early this year I finally made the switch from 35mm film to a DSLR (350D modded). The sheer convenience of seeing an image just after you've taken it - plus the remote control shutter release are an absolute godsend and I don't know why I didn't make the change much earlier on.
Anyway I've bookmarked this site and wish it every success for the future.