Pawel from Poland now onboard :-) Great website indeed!
Hello Everybody!
My name is Pawel Trybus, I am a 33-years old amateur astronomer from Poland. I've been looking at the night sky since childhood, and from January 1997 I've been keeping observing notes (395 sessions so far). Throughout these years I tried everything - Sun, Moon, planets, asteroids, double stars, variable stars, comets, meteor showers, eclipses and occultations. But my most beloved targets have been and still are the deep sky objects.
I had many different telescopes so far (5.5"; 6"; 8"; 11" Newtonians, 3" refractor, 4" and 5" Maksutovs; 20x88 binoculars). Presently I own a 13" f/4.6 Newtonian (made by my friend) and a nice set of eyepieces quoted in my signature below and I am now able to hunt down fainter fuzzies than I could ever before!
I have not much to be proud of, when it comes to "going deep". So far I completed the whole Messier list and I'm working on completing the Herschel 400 list (have already 376/400 observed). Also approximately a hundred NGCs/ICs are marked as seen in my logbook, the faintest galaxies of 14.0-14.2 mag so far.
The place where I observe isn't too good. At best I'm getting limiting magnitude of 6.6, but usually 6.3-6.4. There's some light pollution near horizon, but I simply try to avoid light polluted parts of the sky while observing. I wish I was more mobile and could go to really dark skies from time to time. Unfortunately, I'm a family man, married, with 3 young children, 4th on the way...So I have to enjoy what I have, namely 2-4 sessions per month tops.
Good news is my friend is building another telescope for me - 18" f/4.4. It will be my stationary instrument, kept in the shed at my father-in-law's place. About 20 minutes drive from my home, which is great! Maybe some day I'll be able to take it somewhere under dark sky. I'm thinking about buying a Chrysler Grand Voyager soon (4 kids=4 kid's armchairs, no need to say more :-) ), so the vehicle will handle 18" easily!
So, having the 18" Newtonian in the future I want to go deeper. My first target is already planned - the central star in M57 :-) I tried several times to spot it with my 13", but to no avail... 18" should be enough, though.
I found this forum following the link Uwe Glahn gave me (thanks Uwe!) and I absolutely love it.
I'm sure you guys will give me a lot of ideas of targets for 18" in the future :-)
Guys, I'm shocked at the size of instrument you own! 24", 27", 36", 48"... My 18" will look like a Toi-Toi put next to a 2-store house :D I hope I can meet you in the future and be allowed to look just once through one of the big light buckets you use :-)
Best greetings from Poland and - clear skies!
Pawel
