Hi all - this is sort of a followup question on my poll on "what's your astro thing"
looking at the results I wondered how much people's "thing" was influenced by passion and how much by more practical concerns such as location, free time (read family situation), technology development and cost of different technologies?
for example, when I first got into astronomy I was young, single, poor, and unencumbered and lived on a farm on the outskirts of Brissie with reasonably dark skies and my passion was deep sky... hands down. Spin on 20 years, 3 kids, high pressure long hours job, living surrounded by townhouses, light pollution etc, and now for me it is planetary imaging, no question.
why?.... I still would love to do deep sky, but my current situation only allows for small snatches of observing time under light polluted skies. Then there is the technology cost aspects, planetary imaging of the standard possible wasn't possible in the past and I probably couldn't afford the gear needed back then anyway - making big newtonians by hands however, allowed me to do deep sky.
anyone else feel there hobby is guided more by such practicalities or are you all passion first and damn the torpedos?
loved astronomy when i was young, my 5 year old dauhter became interested when saturn, venus and mars were close together in the sky last may???
it rekindled my love of star gazing and so started on this timeconsuming website and hobby.
i am loving the planetary imaging as dso imaging done properly is not up to this equipment, but i enjoy hunting down the galaxies and nebulas for viewing
i'd image if i had money. id have an observatory i cash want a problem
still, i am very happy with what i have
next upgrade is a low power EP, love hunting fuzzies
i have plenty high power EPs for my doubles
I have only had a scope for about 12 months (first anniversary in two weeks). Whilst I have enjoyed observing all types of objects, I am gravitating towards an interest in double stars and open clusters.
I live in suburbia (albeit in a regional area), and most extra-Milky Way objects are less than thrilling on most nights. For that reason, I usually save looking at galaxies, nebulae etc for New Moon at Kulnura (dark skies). By contrast, any day of the month, even under a full moon, a lot of useful OC and doubles work can be done. Given the viscissitudes of weather, work, light polluting neighbours and family, OC and doubles are more practical at this stage for me. They can also be spectacularly beautiful, especially with colour contrasts.
E.g last night, I spotted Herschell 114 (NGC 2539) for the first time - it has a good cluster of approx mag 10 stars with a gorgeous ripe bright lemon star approx. mag 7 (perhaps a foreground star). Wow! That makes far more of an impact on me than contorting / blinking my eyes in a desparate effort to detect the presence of a galaxy that might be there!
I take my hat off to all the folk on this forum who are into imaging. For me, it removes me too much from the thrill of direct observation with my eyes. I have no interest in sitting at a computer for hours processing images. I'd rather just log onto the Hubble website if I want to see pretty photos!
I guess the raison d'etre for me in all of this is having an experience of the cosmos, and I don't think I'd have that through imaging.
I take my hat off to all the folk on this forum who are into imaging. For me, it removes me too much from the thrill of direct observation with my eyes. I have no interest in sitting at a computer for hours processing images. I'd rather just log onto the Hubble website if I want to see pretty photos!
I guess the raison d'etre for me in all of this is having an experience of the cosmos, and I don't think I'd have that through imaging.
Thanks Rodstar, I must confess till recently to thinking exactly as you do now... that is until I bought that little neximage webcam. Strangely I get the same feeling of discovery as a planet's features emerge during processing as I get from those brief seconds of good seeing at the eyepiece when a planet snaps into focus... but it's nice to have variety in a hobby so while the neximage get's a workout I still want to see "with my own eyes" from time to time
Strangely I get the same feeling of discovery as a planet's features emerge during processing as I get from those brief seconds of good seeing at the eyepiece when a planet snaps into focus...
I can understand the interest in processing then.
No doubt in 5 years' time, I'll be in the imaging camp...
Robert, damn the torpedoes, we only live this life once. I am really new to astrophotography but what a challenging, fascinating hobby. Lifes demands can make priorities tough indeed , but i am now single, so i sold my car to buy the next telescope and rebuild a motorbike for transport- yep, priorities are just fine.
Am contemplating building a stable, softly sprung bike trailer on the cheap for the dob, just to get far enough away from ambient light for real DSO and imaging.
Nice thing about the forum is the creativity of its members, i can only imagine imaging anything really well must be deeply satisfying , and a true challenge- thanks for the inspiration people.
Steve M
That's simple, I have been through the gammit of deep sky work and felt it did not give the same satisfaction as doing planetary imaging. 32 years in the hobby, I am content with my current pursuit.
The Deep sky stuff wins for me... "Now how can I tease out the detail of that spiral galaxy?" & questions like that are what drives me.
I guess thats why the club has a 16" dob on order !
Above all though, I love to share the beauty & mystery of the deep sky with others.
That is the true passion for me,
I'm yet to purchase a scope, but its definitely NOT damn the torpedoes for me. At times I feel like saying 'what the hell' and just commit to a scope, but I've always been one to proscrastinate, analyse things to the point of stupidity and then some more. Also living in Sydney and light pollution I sometimes wonder whether if I'll get the 'wow' factor that I hear so much about. Time is also another major factor, with work committments, house reno's and children. Hats off to ICEMAN, how he fits it all in I don't know!
At the moment I enjoy IIS and I try to get to my local astro club at least fortnightly to wet my appetite and show me what is out there. Money wise, I thought cycling (road) was an expensive hobby but Astronomy definitely gives it a run for its money. I could spend the money now, but there are just a few other priorities that are endearing to me to that I want to accomplish first.
I know I will 'damn' the torpedoes one day soon and when it happens ISS will be the 1st to know. As Ferris Bueller once said '
<DD>"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."</DD>
btw: my passion are Open Clusters, DSO's and the moon.
Deep sky is my passion and I do it visually. Real objects emitting real photons in real time is there anything better? Looking at something like the orion nebula is awsome but I also get a big thrill looking at a distant object like Quasar 3C 273. 2 billion light years away. It's light created by an acreation disk around a hyper massive black hole.
When my Dad caught me looking through two lenses at the moon he knew it was time that Little Roger should make his own telescope. Off to York Optical (in those days there was no Astro Optical, Bintel and all the others) where a couple of pieces of glass were purchased as well as a whole stack of grits, powders, Fe02 (rouge to those who don't know) and pitch. After the first sound of grit between glass I knew that this was what I wanted to do, make stuff. I've been making it ever since. So here I am thirty odd telescopes later (only two commercialy made) and thirty nine years on.
I've made models of telescopes (50mm f/5 Dobsonian), I've made mothers of telescopes (690mm, mirror by Graham Loftus in NZ) and most sizes in between.
I love meeting other people with the similar bug. I get to as many star parties as I can just to talk telescopes, I do it for a hobby, I do it for a living. What more could I want?
Maybe a holiday, let's see, Palomar, Kitt Peak, Mauna Kea, Greenwich ...
Deep sky is my passion and I do it visually. Real objects emitting real photons in real time is there anything better? Looking at something like the orion nebula is awsome but I also get a big thrill looking at a distant object like Quasar 3C 273. 2 billion light years away. It's light created by an acreation disk around a hyper massive black hole.
That's what I meant to say!!! Well said, Mickoking.
My real passion is nebulae in particular, but most deep sky stuff. My attraction to imaging is 2 fold: to be able to extend the capabilities of my scope to reveal detail I can't see by eye, and simply to learn how to do it. I love learning stuff!
I was into astronomy about 15-20 years ago but after 5 years or so marital pressures meant the scope was just sitting in the corner collecting dust, so I sold it. It didn't help the marital situation though, and other activities took precedence for a while...
Early last year, circumstances changed again and I now had more time and some spare money to put into a scope. So I'm back, but while I love the DSOs, I have to admit that I am conscious of how much time I spend on astronomy. My home must be the most light polluted in town, with a street light out the front and another over my back fence (installed in development after I built my house), so I usually travel out of town to find fairly dark skies mainly so my eyes can dark adapt. If a bright moon is up, often I won't bother, I'll set up in the backyard and study or image the moon.
So because I am a) new to imaging; and b) have a portable set up to get away from the light; I am working on learning what I can on lunar and planetary imaging (I must confess to enjoying the lunar stuff more than the other planets so far however - probably something to do with achieving results ). When I get my laptop sorted to drive the long exposure mod on the ToUcam, I plan to get into some wide field long exposure stuff (because the alignment and guiding will be less critical than high magnification stuff).
Deep sky high magnification stuff at this stage is a long term goal / dream... maybe one day when I move to a darker site and can set up and observatory... In the meantime, I have lots to learn and besides, I can thoroughly enjoy and marvel at the the deep sky images that a lot of you guys are producing. I love 'em!
So, yes, what I do is a compromise on what I'd like to do, influenced by my location, my budget, my available time etc.
and besides, I can thoroughly enjoy and marvel at the the deep sky images that a lot of you guys are producing. I love 'em!
