It’s been a long while since I’ve looked through a telescope… in fact almost fifteen years have passed since I first looked up at the sky and wondered about all that’s out there.

I fell away from astronomy all those years ago as my passion for television grew larger, and more dominant, but I remained keenly interested in the pursuit of the heavens. I even started to shape my ‘out-of-work’ projects into that pursuit – my road trip with Liam and Keeley to Canberra is testament to that.

However, it wouldn’t be until I’d run out of episode ideas for The Trekzone Spotlight about four weeks ago that I began to question my off hours from work. I had some money saved up, money that was going to be earmarked for Chapter IV, instead I decided to just jump in and get started once again on astronomy…

But this time I was going to go all in, so thanks to Sirius Optics I’m the proud owner of a Celestron CPC800, an 8″ Cassegrain telescope on an altazimuth mount. It’s computerised and is fairly easy to work with, especially as that hybrid newbie/amateur.

I’ve also bought a planetary camera that I have absolutely no idea how to use, and the interwebs seem very skant on details about first time use… something I think I’ll have to fix! So, for now, what you are seeing on social media and coming up here on 1701 News is shots taken through the eyepiece and my Galaxy S9+. It’s not great, but it’s a start.

I’m excited to be doing something new, something exciting… and something that’s not part of my job.

…Never fear, The Trekzone Spotlight will return in September for fortnightly editions.