Yeah, I know, I haven't been keeping up with my blog. I've been trying to balance work and hobbies as well as trying to get the content right for my YouTube channel. I got a new telescope (a ZWO SeeStar S50 I named Otto) and have been spending a lot of time playing around with him, I participated in the ARRL 2024 Field Day last month with the Williamson County ARES group, and my mom has me helping her clean out our storage cabin because she wants to sell the lot of land it's on. Work's been keeping me pretty busy, too, with driving around to the various sites here in Texas to provide onsite support to end users.
I got the notification on VidIQ yesterday that my YouTube channel has hit 12,000 views, which makes me very happy, but I'm still tryin to figure out what everyone would really like to see. In the process of making videos I'm learning what works (making time lapse shorts of deep sky imaging) and what doesn't (monthly viewing reports, because I can't predict the weather that far out). I've only been doing this half a year now, so it's still a learning process.
My goal has been to become a full-time monetized astronomy YouTuber by the time I turn 50-I want to spend the back half of my life enjoying the stars and sharing them with others. To that extent, I think I'm going to change the focus of my website to just astronomy. I'll still be working with Williamson County ARES because I do enjoy ham radio and contributing to my community, but if I wanna get where I wanna be, it's time to prioritize. Ham radio may make an appearance again later when I start digging deeper into radio astronomy.
As for content, I'm going to keep up with the shorts because they're easy and fun. Look Up This Month is going to get revamped A LOT, and will most likely turn into a weekly update so that the information I provide for stargazers is more accurate and up to date. I'm going to continue with my constellation series through the end of the year as I originally planned because I love the artwork provided by my graphic artist and constellations are great for beginners in astronomy to learn about and enjoy. As for blogging, rather than holding myself to a schedule I'm just going to post as I feel like it and have stuff to share.
I'm also getting into the swing of livestreaming. I wish I weren't so awkward and could find more entertaining ways of giving others information. I also want to find someone to co-host my livestream with me at some point. I do plan to continue keeping the livestream going unattended after the entertainment portion, not only so I have material for making time lapse videos but also so others can enjoy the view and the process of collecting deep sky images. It's definitely a work in progress that's going to keep evolving.
So that's about it. Life keeps moving and I'm just trying to adjust so I can continue doing what I enjoy. Thanks for coming along with me on the ride!
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