I have been interested in space since I was young, but my astronomy hobby really took off in my retirement days. My first telescope in the 60s was a short experiment – now my hobby continues along many different paths: remote telescopes, variable stars, deep sky, asteroids, comets, international and local club activities, a sky camera and my own smart telescope.
The sections below lead to subpages presenting backgrounds and images in more detail.
When my own sky seemed challenging, I discovered Slooh's remote telescopes. For a small annual fee, I was able to use several professional-grade telescopes around the world and learn photography safely “from the comfort of my couch”.
Through Slooh, I learned LRGB photography, filters, and the basics of image processing – at the same time, I gained confidence that the hobby was worthwhile.
With Slooh, my interest shifted towards variable stars. I started submitting observations to the AAVSO community, which has been collecting variable star data for over a hundred years.
Reporting observations also brought a sense of being a “little scientist” to the hobby – my data actually ends up being used by researchers.
Surprisingly, I only joined the local South Karelia Nova association after the remote telescope and AAVSO phase. However, it became the third perfect match for the hobby.
Nova is a small but enthusiastic group that combines observation trips, presentations and learning together – and a connection to the national Ursa organization.
For a long time I thought that the sky camera would not be useful because of light pollution and trees. In practice, the opposite happened: the camera shows well when the sky is really clear and records the surprises of the night sky.
The sky camera serves as a weather station, observation diary and image gallery at the same time – a good tool for planning other observations as well.
Finally, our own smart telescope found its way to the porch roof. The Seestar S50 combines a camera, a tripod, and a computer into one device – it can be used with a phone, even if the sky is only visible from above the yard.
With Seestar, we have photographed deep sky objects, details of the Moon, as well as asteroids and variable stars, often directly from the comfort of my home.
