It was five years ago, and counting, that my wife relayed to me one question a friend was asked in one of those banal day-workshops we all know too well: "What would be the first 3 things you'd do if you had all the money in the world?" was the question. Though we both considered it rather banal at the time, and without referring to my first two replies - my third and final was: "I'd buy myself a telescope". It stunned me how easy this came to me, after a 30 years long vacation from this wonderful hobby. There are some known lyrics in Hebrew saying "It wasn't gone, but rather only sleeping". And evidently, the hobby was hibernating for thirty years in the back of my mind...

And boy, what an awakening that was.. To make a rather short story even shorter: in five years I found myself completely immersed in the hobby, with my own company delivering the Boren-Simon Powernewts (www.powernewts.com). Our pride and joy Powernewts are super-fast crisp-image astrographs, which had won us both the "Star Product of the Year 2011" award, by Astronomy Magazine, and "Hot Product of the Year 2011", by Sky and Telescope Magazine. My F/2.8 Caron Fiber Powernewt, along with a powerful SBIG ST-8300M with state of the art E-Series GenII Astrodon filters, are accountable to most of the images you will see on this site - shot from Israel, and Namibia. All processing faults and errors are, obviously, mine to blame. The beloved Powernewt was recently joined by an Italian new-born, the Officina Stellare Riccardi Honders Veloce RH 200, another super-fast machine, very much to my liking!

Finally, beyond the thrill of continuous revelation - as science wasn't dormant during those thirty years - and the thrill of seeing the Almighty's creation, up close and personal (using a good eyepiece, of course), I have taken on the torturous - and so much fun - task of astro-imaging too. Traveling about 250 km to our favorite dark sites, once or twice a month, brings about mosquito bites, great asto-buddies, and a devastating rise in gas expenses. It also brings about some of the sights I share with you on this site. Some are good, and some are better (:-)) but all are dedicated to my lovely lady, my charming friend, with whom 'each day is valentines day' - my pal and always funny buddy, my wife Gali.

Please feel absolutely free to connect with me at any time, on any topic, at: harel.boren@gmail.com.

Enjoy! -- Harel Boren -- Dec. 2012