Jules76
31-03-2010, 10:40 PM
Hi all.
I was sitting on the toilet, and as you do, you have time to think and ponder things. And I came to the realisation (and confirmed when checking up my first purchase), that I've reached the milestone of going through my first full year in Astronomy. :thumbsup:
I then came to another conclusion. Now I'm by no means a hardcore Amatuer Astronomer. I'm yet to use my scope outside of my backyard, I don't go out every clear night, so I mostly go out basically when I feel like it (which is usually on weekends when I've had time to rest from a week of work). Let's just face it, lugging up to 20kg's of equipment in and out the house isn't fun after you've spent the day on your feet. And as you all well know, Astronomy is very much a patience game with the weather, full moon and many other factors limiting when you can go out. So you can imagine, viewing time is very much limited. So I reckon taking a rough guess, in this year I've only used my scope maybe 15 times. That's 15 days out of 365. :eyepop:
Now the scary thing is, I've spent more time browsing forums like these, reading up on Astronomy, watching documentaries, researching eyepieces, filters and other scope accessories, making a list of future purchases, purchasing eyepieces, filters and other scope accessories, fiddling around with my scope indoors (because I can :P) the list goes on....
Now if this were any other hobby, I'd probably would have given up or lost interest by now. But I haven't. If my interest ever drops (which it did for a little while with all this weather up here in QLD) all it takes is one outing with my scope and everything is all good. Saw Saturn for the first time in my 8 inch (my first was a 4.5" reflector) a couple of weekends ago, and was blown away once again. Now I've done nothing since but browse my favourite Astronomy retailers. :lol:
Anyway, enough for now. I'm wasting time I could otherwise be spending looking up more things to buy hehe.
I was sitting on the toilet, and as you do, you have time to think and ponder things. And I came to the realisation (and confirmed when checking up my first purchase), that I've reached the milestone of going through my first full year in Astronomy. :thumbsup:
I then came to another conclusion. Now I'm by no means a hardcore Amatuer Astronomer. I'm yet to use my scope outside of my backyard, I don't go out every clear night, so I mostly go out basically when I feel like it (which is usually on weekends when I've had time to rest from a week of work). Let's just face it, lugging up to 20kg's of equipment in and out the house isn't fun after you've spent the day on your feet. And as you all well know, Astronomy is very much a patience game with the weather, full moon and many other factors limiting when you can go out. So you can imagine, viewing time is very much limited. So I reckon taking a rough guess, in this year I've only used my scope maybe 15 times. That's 15 days out of 365. :eyepop:
Now the scary thing is, I've spent more time browsing forums like these, reading up on Astronomy, watching documentaries, researching eyepieces, filters and other scope accessories, making a list of future purchases, purchasing eyepieces, filters and other scope accessories, fiddling around with my scope indoors (because I can :P) the list goes on....
Now if this were any other hobby, I'd probably would have given up or lost interest by now. But I haven't. If my interest ever drops (which it did for a little while with all this weather up here in QLD) all it takes is one outing with my scope and everything is all good. Saw Saturn for the first time in my 8 inch (my first was a 4.5" reflector) a couple of weekends ago, and was blown away once again. Now I've done nothing since but browse my favourite Astronomy retailers. :lol:
Anyway, enough for now. I'm wasting time I could otherwise be spending looking up more things to buy hehe.