Introduce yourselves

[JeanLuc]

Hello fellow enthusiast.,
I’m David, from Pearland Texas, just south of Houston. I’m forty-eight years old, with a beautiful wife, three children and a wonderful grandson. And every since I was a kid, and watched Captain Kirk kicking alien butts, I’ve been interested in space, Sci-Fi, and even UFO-ology. I’ve never owned a telescope. But now that the kids are gone and out of school, I finally made the plunge last Friday. Lucky for me I work with someone that belongs to the Houston Area Astronomical Society. And also lucky for me, this gentleman owned two very nice telescopes. Key word being “owned”. Because I bought his eight inch Meade reflector telescope. He kept his ten inch. I only wished I had done this years ago. It is truly amazing checking out the moon and Mars. With the Mar’s opposition occurring now, and the fact that my five year old grandson is showing a real interest in astronomy these days, I knew I had to make a purchase quick. And I did so with no regrets. Tomorrow I’m having several of my friends and family over for rib-eyed steaks and Mar’s watching. I’m REALLY looking forward to showing off my new telescope.

So here’s a big howdy from Texas, David

[summerwind#1]

Hello:
My name is Sandy and I live at the South Jersey Shore.
I am a retired professional dog Handler also a breeder of Boxers and Pugs.
I'm an avid birder. My main interest are, Raptors. This area is a mecca for migrating birds so, I'm very fortunate.

I am a rank novice in this world but it's awesome! Mars got me into this and I'm grateful.
Have purchased several books. Turn Left at Orion, 365 Starry Nights,The Stars, by Rey(nice book great for the novice) and last but not least Night Watch.

Now I need a Telescope.... Any reasonable thoughts?

Sandy

[mikael63]

Hi all

My name is Mikael Kandell, im 40 years old and living in beautiful Philippine islands(because i married a sweet filipina 2 years ago )

Originally im from Finland..small country in nothern europe and i have been dreaming about space and space exploration since i read my 1st sci-fi novel
(i was 12 i think and it was Asimov's Foundation, still my favorite)

Space is my real interest in life..and my dream is to be part of space exploration someday soon( i know i can't be astronaut so i have to contribute other ways

I like your website very much Fraser, and all like minded people here have ignited my passion for space again. thank you all.

Im not much of a writer so expect only short comments from me :P , but i will be reading all posts here, keep writing folks.

I have a Dream i want to share with like minded people, but that i will post later when i have enough courage to try a long post

Mikael

[Arramon]

=)

. ..-={A}=-.. .

[Duane]

Hi everyone! My name is Duane, I am from Calgary Alberta Canada and work in the insurance industry.

I'm also 40 something, married with three children.

I have been interested in astronomy for as long as I can remember, probably starting with the moon landings when I was 9 years old.

I found Fraser's newsletter through internet trolling about 6 years ago & have been recieving his email news ever since.

I am becoming inspired to take some astronomy courses--I understand the U of Calgary has an excellent program.

[sailormars]

hai everyone.....thee name is SAILORMARS @ ERIC. GUESS WHAT...I came far away from MALAYSIA (ANYONE REMEMBER 'THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD' ?). Well.. i just sign up as a member here when i want to know about the Mars thingie..so i stuck here(kidding &#33. Wel, bro. Fraser sure have my e mail change then (thanks ; ). Lots of information that iwant to know much about space and the mystery of it...EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT...- MALAYSIA'S NEWEST MICROSATELLITE, RazakSat is one to be launch somewhere around this month or next month. Just search on RAZAKSAT on any search engine to hear more. One suggestion please....could you find some news about Asian space scenery. It would be great to hear something on the other side of the world..

keep on boosting onto the neverending space,
SAILORMARS @ MOHD. FADZREEQ- ERIC:>zephyreric@yahoo.com

[Diver4]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here, but the information is great. I am just learning about astronomy and am taking a couple of course thru the Barnes & Noble University and find the sky so interesting. Someone in the course sent me here and I am sure glad.

[Fraser]

Welcome folks... get posting!

[Aerospace]

Hi people,

My name is Uli Shabani, i am a 23 year old student at York University in Toronto Canada. I am currently taking physics and am in my 3rd year. As u can tell, i like this kinda stuff My main area of interst is theoretical physics, more along the lines of cosmology theories, but that doesn't stop me from trying to learn about other things.

I guess that's all i have to say for now.

I'm glad to be here, and i have been on the mailing list for universe today for maybe 3 yrs now... good stuff, it keeps me up to date on news and keeps me thinking.

Hope to talk to you all soon, and perhaps post some replies on the forums.

gotta go back to classes&#33; <_<
oh well&#33;

L8TZ

[CyberJIT]

Hi everyone&#33;

Mi name is Ignacio, and I&#39;m a 24yo doctor from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I was always awed by the night sky, but what really made me wonder about what is beyond our atmosphere were the visits to the local planetarium when I was a kid and, of course, sci-fi&#33;

Now I&#39;m studying to become a genetic investigator (I know, some distance between whole patients and DNA).

My interests (besides the topics mentioned above) include: music, cinema, tech and science in general (this is starting to sound like a personal ad). If it is in the Discovery Channel, i like it, unless is a show about cooking.

I suscribed to the newsletter just before the forums were opened, I try to read every story and follow almost any kind of topic. You guys are great&#33; I think your answers, and more importantly your questions, fill this forum with the most advanced science discussions. Keep it up&#33;

Chau.

[philip slater]

Originally posted by andy2020@Aug 12 2003, 03:10 AM
I want humanity to get back into space in a big way but it is going to take a disaster like a meteor strike of sizeable proportions to initiate it (assuming there are enough survivors) It just can&#39;t be done because it is the right thing to do or for national goals or if its necessary to keep apace of any other political system. The big problem is and remains money ....... period......

I would like to participate in that 250 year project by suggesting that at the outset, we set out to EXPLORE THE WHOLE GALAXY and then develop the technology to do just that. That means A.I. , nanotech, robots and power sources that last for 50,000 years if we cannot break the Light Speed Barrier.

Hi andy2020. Great that you worked on Apollo back in Space Age I . A whole lot of people all around the world really appreciate what you all achieved. The first step. Always the big one, whatever comes after, and what comes after hasn&#39;t even begun to arrive yet.

You mention money. Money is a great invention, really useful for helping to quantify and then record and account for exchanges or trades of things perceived as being of value. Very necessary procedures when trading something for something else, although of course there is no need to establish, quantify or record the value of a good, a thing of value, freely given and received.

Money also can sometimes act as a repository, storehouse and preservative of value. Amazing. Someone can actually inherit and utilise the value of the work their grandparents did as young people on a little house in the prairie even though they live in another place and another time. Van Gogh and Gauguin sat down one day and did some work on their paintings. If you find one of these in your attic you can transform a Van Gogh into a monetary number expressing its value that he never knew it had, or at least the local artists&#39; materials shop or the boulangerie or the bar didn&#39;t recognise. You can then take the money round to Burt Rutan and he&#39;ll build you a spaceship, or at least a spaceboat or spaceplane.

But when we start really thinking from first principles about what might be possible for the nascent independent Space Sector to achieve, as you are prepared to do, we cannot confine our attempts to understand the nature of money to the area of expertise of financiers, accountants, investors, sponsors and fundraisers. As someone once said, space is big, mind boglingly big.

Anyone thinking of doing space is going to have to think really big, and start talking to economists. Doing space impinges on the whole economy of a country, as is realised in some countries but not yet in others. Nowhere near, as yet, the economic effects or benefits of war, but a measurable impact.

Next step must be to find someone who understands some rocket science and some economics. The search is on.

Regarding your thoughts about what can be achieved spaceside in the next 250 years or so, the sort of time gap since Newton and Liebnitz and suchlike, that is exactly the way we should go about it, thinking in small manageable time units. Lately I&#39;ve been stuck in a rut trying to understand what might be achieved in just the next twenty-five years in reality, rather than in the imposed (lack of) vision of current conventional (lack of) wisdom. It&#39;s nice to be able to take the little bit longer view of even a quarter of yet another millennium.


Philip

[LYNN]

A few years back I had a dream I somewhat remembered in the morning. The focus of the action was a private space agency or not even an agency, just a big private company doing what NASA does now. As I am a former civil servant, I was, upon waking, taken aback by this, but maybe that&#39;s what the future will bring&#33;

[Fraser]

I hope the future will bring all kinds of different space agencies, both private and public run. More = better.

Oh, and welcome. :-)

[imported_ROB]

hi iam rob from england (leicester) i have been looking at this site for a few days now and as i am about to start a degree in astronomy and plantary sceince the discussions held in these forums are great i have lots to learn and lots to ask so perhaps you educated people out there can help me learn and ill share my opinions

ps great site #the only one i keep coming back to


10/10

[Fraser]

Thanks Rob, welcome to the forums&#33;

Spooon&#33;

[memo]

HI My name is nelson,i am married w/three kids one of each.I do not believe any thing i read and only half of what iread .I question averything .I find if i really question the answer either changes or is ignored.I do not have many friends guess why but i tell the truth and i will not treat you like a mushroom, i wiil not leave you in the dark and feed you **. thanks for listening.

[zephyr46]

Hi everyone, my name is Neil Price,I live in Canberra, I am a 30 yo uni drop out (social work) whose preoccupation with my web site holds me together:

My Webpage

It&#39;s pretty broad.
I was attracted back to space in the late 90&#39;s with the exoplanet discoveries. My interest in space is artistic/aesthetic , as oppoesed to mathmatical, if I ever overcome my fear of maths that will definately change.
My interests are the Galactic Center, Asteroids, the distence to Proxima Centuari , multiwave astronomy and making a map of it all, particularly impressed with Solstation.com (definately worth a visit)
zephyr46@lycos.com
Cheers

[eggplant]

This is a pasted copy of the e-mail I sent the originator of this topic. (I&#39;m still working out the format here) I wrote it as if everone was going to read it... any way I know at least spaceguy will

Seti project is winding down, but they do support a new data crunching program. I believe they explain this on their home page. But do go for it, especially if your from the school where you never turn your computer off and you want to feel like you&#39;re not wasting electricity... ( the argument is that the continued heating and cooling of the motherboard eventually stresses the micro connections and the continuious expansion and contraction breaks them causing the MB to die... plus most problems occur during start up so if it&#39;s runnig LEAVE IT ALONE&#33;&#33;&#33; <=== old school windows reason) Most decently modern comps can run this continiously while you are doing everything else you want...
my user info... yawn
Data units completed: 793
Total computer time: 40782hr 19 min 16.2 sec
that&#39;s = to 4.656 years
Class of Sept 26, 1999

I also responded because I have some friends in oz trel ya
My chat friend writes a nationally syndicated health column for the newspapers... Jules. She&#39;s a gem. look her up in your local paper&#33; Yoose ozzies been fun to know. So&#39;s I could&#39;na resist sayin G&#39;day M8&#33;

[Arramon]

oi&#33;&#33; thats alot of time...

I&#39;m at like 81 units =) with 5000 hours.... yeeeee...

. ..-={A}=-.. .

[Deep_Eye]

HI. I&#39;m my name is Kyle, and I&#39;m 15 years old and a freshman in high school. You call call my interest in space "obsessive." I live in Hutchinson, Kansas (in the USA), home of the Cosmosphere&#33;&#33;&#33;
I love to read, especially a good sci-fi book, and I also like to swim and ride my bike.

[Chook]

Hullo ,
My name is John Fowler (CHOOK, of course) and I live in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia with my beautiful Spanish wife Rosa.

I worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, for 16 years and met my wife there. When we started having children we returned to Australia to bring them up as "fair dinkum Aussies".

My wife plays the flute, and I play the trumpet in the city orchestra - which has nothing to do with "space"; but thought I&#39;d tell you anyway.

Like others, I don&#39;t know how we started receiving Frazer&#39;s E-mails, but we soon got hooked and are now regularly contributors to the Forum - where really great discussions take place, sometimes a bit heated, but that is all in the fun. We are all still good friends and I will remember worthy apponents like PARKER, STARRMAN and StarMileBest for some time to come.

I am very grateful to Frazer for the hard work he has done creating and maintaining this site. How has he had the time to father a child?

See you on the forum ...

[kashi]

It didn&#39;t occur to me until now that I haven&#39;t introduced myself yet. Here goes...

My name is Kashi, and I am 19 years old and live in Melbourne. I am studying jazz piano at the Victorian College of the Arts (part of the University of Melbourne), although I am probably equally passionate about astronomy and mathematics. Throughout high school I studied maths and sciences (physics, chemistry), and I may study them at tertiary level one day.

Back in 1999 I ran a website reporting extrasolar planet discoveries, which I unfortunately had to give up once study became more demanding. I have also been receiving Fraser&#39;s newsletter since mid 1999. I find being part of this forum is a great way for me to keep up to date with the latest in space exploration and astronomy, and an effective means to exchange all kinds of ideas with like-minded people. As a moderator I am impressed by so far not having had to remove a single post due to inappropriate content&#33; It seems that everyone here is nice&#33; Great job Fraser&#33;

Kashi

[all_isone]

i&#39;m 38 years old, in europe.
english is not my mother language.
interested in space weather, the universe and emerging technologies,
of which i confess not knowing too much.

this is one of the best forums of its kind,
quite serious and civilised, congrats

[imported_Draco]

I didn&#39;t really introduce myself that much either
I&#39;m Denni&#33; I live in Brisbane, Australia and am 15 years old, always had an interest in Astronomy, though not so deeply as i do now.
I&#39;m interested in Science, and doing Physics in senior next year
This forum&#39;s great too&#33;

[jimmy]

Hi everybody&#33; I&#39;m Jimmy Gisclair, a Louisiana cajun still living in southeastern LA.
A musician (Guitar and Bass) professionally, married to a great woman. I&#39;m 50, which is an infant compared to mother earth. I&#39;m absolutely amazed by the night sky. I went to a lecture at a planetarium in New Orleans a few years ago and I was stunned; my brain stretched to about 5 times it&#39;s normal size in about an hour. Anyway, thanks to Frasier for the site and all of you who contribute to the further understanding of All that Is.

[Menikmati]

I introduced myself but I think it was in the wrong topic area. My name is George Clark and I am 18 years old, I live in New Hampshire and I am trying to get my self into University of New Hampshire aka. UNH. The reason I say trying is because I droped out of high school and got my GED was a very stupid move on my part but I am changing it. My intrest are astronomy and comsology. I have been reading books on quantum menchanics, general relitivity. My future plans are to become a professor in astronomy or related fields. Other intrest consist of reading and outdoors. Also I would like to say thanks for fraser putting together this forum, you have done a great job.

[hubble]

hey all hubble, the new kid on the block loved your new site fraser good for people like me.If any one has news before the newsletter comes back please email me beach_danielw@hotmail.com :mellow: :unsure:

[Anomander]

Hi&#33; My names Peter Lee. I&#39;m a 23 year old student nurse from sunny Rotherham in England.

If anyone knows of any space agency that takes on newly qualified nurses i&#39;m all ears&#33;

I&#39;ve learnt so much from this site and am now just getting into the forums so if you see any stupid questions from me its cos i have a million of them to ask and usually think of them when i&#39;m being bored to tears in a lecture about nursing policies or something along those lines and have usually lost the will to live and have forgotten them by the time i get home&#33;

Anyone fancies a chat i&#39;m at van_hoojidonk@hotmail.com.

Cheers&#33;

[AusJosh]

Greetings all,

I am the newest member apparently, although i have been receiving universe today for almost a year now. For some reason i never noticed there was a forum&#33;

My name is Joshua Stacey, i am 20 years old and live in Canberra, Australia.

I am currently studying a Bachelor of Science Degree Triple Majoring in Physics, Theoretical Physics and best of all Astrophysics with aspirations to do Honours and a PhD in Astrophysics and Astronomy.


A very large thankyou to Frasier for all the time and effort he puts into Universe Today, its extremely important that we continue to educate others about science.

Hope to be around for a while.


Josh

PS The Casini Jupiter photo is simply fantastic, so much so i had to order myself a large poster of it to put on my wall&#33;

[kashi]

Welcome to the forum Josh&#33; Where do you order such posters? I want one&#33;