Why Do We (astronomers) Look Up At The Stars Why Do Humans (you) Look At The Stars

TJD (Trevor) · #1 05-03-2009, 11:01 PM

Why Do You Look At The Stars (what Got You Into Astronomy)

Octane (Humayun) · #2 06-03-2009, 12:51 AM

Seeing images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. And, then, finding Heavens Above and hunting Iridium flares. Then doing some astronomy at university, whilst studying computer science.

However, ever since I was little, I had a fascination with the sky.

Regards,
Humayun

spearo (Frank) · #3 06-03-2009, 06:26 AM

The voices told me to do it, it's not so bad when I wear my aluminum foil hat though...

Seriously, it started when I bought a small property outside the city and discovered what a dark (darkish) site's night sky was like. I looked up and thought "WOAH! I should get a scope to get a better look at this". I used a 100mm spotting scope for a year and then IIS forum advised me at the time of purchasing.
took one terrible image of M42 (i even put it on website) and I was hooked.
frank

Analog6 (Odille) · #4 06-03-2009, 07:50 AM

I grew up in the country and they are always there - circling around at night when you go out to do a lst check of the animals or get some air.

How could you not look?

And then you find what you are seeing is milleniums ago, and that some of them are planets, and then you see phtots through telescopes . . .

How could anyone NOT get hooked?

Rodstar (Rod) · #5 06-03-2009, 08:45 AM

The immensity of it all never ceases to astound.

erick (Eric) · #6 06-03-2009, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodstar

The immensity of it all never ceases to astound.

Yes, this reason, and it's pretty, and it's good for me (recover/regen time).

Baddad (Marty) · #7 06-03-2009, 08:58 AM

I developed a curious fascination back in the mid - late '60's. Not long after the asteroid knocked out the dinasours.
Amazing power up in the heavens. Black Holes. I gotta see that.

Still looking.

desler · #8 06-03-2009, 09:03 AM

The cheeky answer is, cause it's there!

So many places to visit and wonder at, right from your own back yard!
Who wouldn't?

Darren

Davekyn (David) · #9 06-03-2009, 09:09 AM

Good question Trev...(is it ok to call you Trev?) For me, it’s many things...The main reason being I am a dreamer. Like Analog6 I grew up in the country as a young fella and it’s near impossible to avoid the stars when checking the animals or rounding up the wayward ones.

My fascination started very young...I was born in 1969 & possibly due to the fact that humans had only just landed on the moon & electronic gadgetry set to change the lives of the average family, I grew up watching a heap of sci-fi & loved it.

Hubble really did impact me & have to agree with Humayun there. It made me feel closer to the stars and seeing clouds like that in space really opened up my imagination. Not sure if you still use an atlas called Jacaranda at school but I used to love looking at the Solar System inside the front cover. During the 70s albeit the late seventies, I think mum used to let me know whenever another Nassa probe was doing its thing. I still got News paper articles from when a probe took a new pixilated shot of some planet or new discovery & I collected older news paper articles of the mooned missions. My science teacher never used to smash my head into the table like my maths teacher did...I always looked up to my Science teachers for that. They just seemed so much more ... mmmmmmm.......Chemically balanced. I guess what I am saying, is the space era had a big influence.

Lastly Trev...sometimes when things get a bit tough on Earth & I need some space, what better way to chill out than grab a scope and take a trip above and beyond. With all the info we have now available, the destinations just keep getting better & better + you really don’t need fancy equipment to go there.

I Just Love Staring Into Space at times...even without a telescope...I know the answer is out there somewhere & have the notion it’s more like a cross between an equation and some aliens misconception of spirituality spawn on some distant planet...But it’s ok, I’m not completely mad yet. It’s when you start thinking like that, you drop the scope and become like a walking antenna...Just don’t take too much in at once...need filters for that. LOL

Can’t wait till the sun sets (imagine weird sci-fi music about now)...Have to go to work...Have a good day Trev
Dave

JethroB76 (Jeff) · #10 06-03-2009, 09:25 AM

The visit of Halleys Comet in 1986 got me hooked

sheeny (Al) · #11 06-03-2009, 09:35 AM

Because it's more interesting than TV!

Actually, I had a mate in school who was into astronomy, and I got curious... I wanted to know, how do you do this?, how do you find things?, etc.

Al.

PeterM · #12 06-03-2009, 10:26 AM

In England as a kid I got hooked on Patrick Moore's Sky at Night and Dr Who. Then imagine my good fortune when the family up and move to to the best place South of the equator to safely enjoy this wonderful hobby with all the very best objects you could ever hope to see. I have also met some of my very closest friends through this hobby. Trevor, at 13 in this hobby/passion you have it all ahead of you. 20 years ago we imagined where this hobby might be now in terms of technology etc, we were barely close, it has exceeded all expectations.
PeterM.

Rodstar (Rod) · #13 06-03-2009, 12:37 PM

It is interesting that some are answering this thread by speaking of how they first became interested. I do not mean this as a criticism.

What originally interested me is a long way removed from what keeps me in the hobby now.

My initial interest was sparked by views through a teenage friend's small Tasco refractor: Jupiter, the Moon etc. The idea of witnessing such objects was a novelty.

As an adult, I came more seriously into the hobby through a growing interest in the nature of the physical universe, and an awareness of the aesthetics of it. I continue to feed on that same impetus. Although many people I know quickly become fascinated when I speak about the universe, some people just glaze over. It seems to me that such people just haven't experienced that same sense of awe, and it always puzzles me how they could not be amazed by it. My wife is the classic example of this! Fortunately she is amazed by other things I have to share with her.

PeterM · #14 06-03-2009, 01:08 PM

Rodstar that would make another interesting thread, how many of our spouses/partners are also interested in this hobby and to what degree do they support us. I think my wife and yours must have been friends - "that dot there, that's it?" I have for several years been looking for new stars in galaxies far away, exploding ones that is. Why? The fascination of the immense forces at work and knowing that 99.9% of the population can't come close to imagining that. Perhaps being the first to "see" image an event like that and then thinking of the implications in millions and billions of years. That is after all why we are here. This keeps me looking at the stars and I thoroughly enjoy it.
PeterM.

dannat (Daniel) · #15 06-03-2009, 01:17 PM

I became interested because there was an astronomy themed unit at the school i was teaching that nobody wanted to take. I put my hand up & enjoyed it

My wife is also not interested, mostly because she thinks if I keep it up it will involve more costly expenditure in the future - she has even turned the kids on me - & now they tell me i can buy no more telescope stuff as I never have any money left for them

jungle11 (Greg) · #16 06-03-2009, 03:23 PM

Im not really sure what first sparked my intrest.

But i remember in primary school a teacher took us out onto the school oval to make a scale model of the solar system. We put a basket ball in the centre and so on. Can't remember the exact figures so I worked it out like this:

If pluto was 100 metres from the sun (average) then the nearest star would be around 680 km away.

It blew my mind then, and it still does, and it always will.

To think something like us could exist here through what...chemistry, natural selection?? I love wondering at the big picture, and hope I never 'grow out of it'

Kevnool (Kev) · #17 06-03-2009, 05:11 PM

A fascination which has always been there before i did something about it.
Cheers Kev.

Ric · #18 06-03-2009, 07:06 PM

Why, because it's blooming awesome.

One look at Omega Centauri, The Great Nebula or capture a visual of a faint galaxy (even if it is a fuzzy smudge) and I'm happy and content for days.

Under dark skies in the bush I feel what it must have been like for the early pioneers of astronomy.

To sum it up "I just love it"

Cheers

avandonk · #19 06-03-2009, 10:22 PM

You are children of the stars. Any atom in your body that is not hydrogen or helium was manufactured in a star eons ago. Normal stars can only produce by nucleosynthesis up to Iron. Any element higher than this can only be produced in a super nova. Every atom in the gold you see was produced by a super nova.

Bert

Jen · #20 06-03-2009, 10:48 PM

Because the sky looks so pretty
after a school project i had to do in primary school it got me very very curiuos about what is out there i have always looked above ever since