Hello, I am Wolfgang Howurek, my nickname is "Howdii". I was born in 1962. In 1980 I graduated from high school, and in 1982 from a college for electrical engineering.
Since 1984 I'm working in Vienna as Software developer. I got programming experience in Assembler, C, C++ and Java. I also have experience in analysis of project requirements and development, and in writing specifications and documentations.

I got interested in astronomy around 1970, when I was a boy. My father showed me the stars and told me how to find the constellations. Soon I baught my first astronomy book, and got my first telescope: a 60/700mm department-store refractor. This little scope showed me the rings of Saturn the first time, also the prominent cloud belts on Jupiter and the four moons, as well as some bright deep sky objects, like the Great Orion Nebula. The images of deep sky objects were very dim in this small refractor. So, one year later I had my first equipment upgrade: a 110/900mm Newtonian. This scope had quite good optics, but a shaky mount and a very shaky tripod. I later built a solid wooden tripod and learned how to tweak the mount for best stability. With this little Newtonian I saw many Messier objects for my first time.
For some years another hobby took first place, and astronomy was a little bit asleep. However, around 1990 astronomy came to a revival. I soon baught my first "real" astronomical telescope. I baught lots of books about astronomy, observing and telescope optics.
With time my observing experience grew, and also my collection of telescopes. Currently I'm owning 5 telescopes: a 4" f/8 APO refractor, a 5.7" f/6 Maksutov-Newtonian, a 6" f/10 Maksutov-Cassegrainian, an 8" f/6 Maksutov-Newtonian, and an 18" f/4.5 truss-tube Dobsonian. Sometimes I don't know, whether I'm more interested in telescopes or in astronomy ;-) 1995 I learned how to star-test telescopes. Since then I've tested and evaluated dozends of telescopes.
1996 I met my astronomy partner, DI Mag. Walter Koprolin. We have a very good cooperation and got much of our experience together. Walter is a critical observer, star-tester, and a well known astro imager. Besides, he is a graduated astronomer.
Meanwhile I have written many observation reports and some other articles, like test reports about telescopes (all in German). Together with Walter I have given lectures for some astronomy clubs in Austria and Germany; themes were: the basics of visual observing, and the basics of telescope optics and how to star-test telescopes.
My main interest in astronomy is searching the Milkyway for the lesser known nebulae, planetary nebulae and star clusters. 2001 I baught a CCD camera. Together with Walter I do now also CCD imaging. Because the setup for an imaging session is very time consuming, I'm currently planning to build an observatory for remote controlled and even robotic CCD imaging.

Finally, some reflections. What's about me and Idea 2 Gear? Ok, Armin is my friend, and astronomy is my hobby. I want to keep it at this. But I can bring in some ideas, hopefully, at least. And since I have years of experience with astronomical gear, especially telescopes, and because I am a very critical customer (yes, I'm Armin's customer), I will take a look on Armin's astronomical gear - from the construction board to the night sky. And for sure, I can assist him in evaluating telescope optics. I think I know what counts: a high-quality telescope not only needs good optics, it needs also a solid mechanical structure. What's my working for Idea 2 Gear is this spirit of quality.