Hello, all.

Came here after reading the Bad Astronomer's blog recently - glad I found this site, as there appears to be a lot of good info and resources here.

A bit about myself -

I've been very into astronomy for years now. My Father, a retired university professor, showed me a lot when I was a kid (including one magic evening when we viewed all 8 (then) planets in one night using a Celestron 8" set up in the back yard of our home in Westchester County, NY.

When I went to college I took Astronomy Lab from him, then assisted him a couple times as a lab assistant. I was very fortunate that he was teaching at Alfred University then - the Observatory there has 5 major telescopes available for students, ranging from a 9" refractor to a 32" reflector. All but the biggest are used by Astro Lab students - somewhat rare in astronomy instruction today.

I haven't used a telescope in a while, though, as I'm a career Soldier. I've served just under 17 years Active Duty so far. I've been a few cool places and seen a few cool things; currently I'm deployed to Iraq.

I'm online using the same (user)name on a couple military-related forums, a couple science/evolution related forums, and generally around and about.

Anyhow, that's me in a very small nutshell - feel free to ask if you would like to know more.